Latitude AI, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, will focus on developing a hands-free, eyes-off-the-road automated driving system for millions of vehicles. With the formation of Latitude, Ford adds a leading team of machine learning, robotics, software, sensors, systems engineering and operations talent as the automaker grows and expands its development efforts in automated driving technology – including advancements in Ford BlueCruise, which already has accumulated more than 50 million miles of hands-free driving.
Ford says Latitude is reimagining the customer experience by automating driving during times that can be tedious, stressful and unpleasant, such as bumper-to-bumper traffic or on long stretches of highway. The average driver in the U.S. spends nearly 100 hours a year sitting in traffic, according to the transportation analytics firm INRIX.
"We see automated driving technology as an opportunity to redefine the relationship between people and their vehicles," said Doug Field, chief advanced product development and technology officer, Ford Motor Company. "Customers using BlueCruise are already experiencing the benefits of hands-off driving. The deep experience and talent in our Latitude team will help us accelerate the development of all-new automated driving technology – with the goal of not only making travel safer, less stressful and more enjoyable but ultimately over time, giving our customers some of their day back."
Establishing Latitude supports Ford's strategic shift last year to focus on automated driving technologies for personally owned vehicles. Ford hired about 550 employees formerly of Argo AI across machine learning and robotics, cloud platforms, mapping, sensors and compute systems, test operations, systems and safety engineering. In addition, the Latitude team has applied much of their experience in automated driving, including software development tools and infrastructure, in the pivot to work on advanced driver assist systems (ADAS).
Sammy Omari, Executive Director of ADAS Technologies at Ford, will also serve as Latitude's CEO. In addition, Peter Carr is appointed Chief Technology Officer, overseeing Latitude's product and technical development, and David Gollob is named president, responsible for business operations.
"We believe automated driving technology will help improve safety while unlocking all-new customer experiences that reduce stress and in the future will help free up a driver's time to focus on what they choose," said Omari. "The expertise of the Latitude team will further complement and enhance Ford's in-house global ADAS team in developing future driver assist technologies, ultimately delivering on the many benefits of automation."
Latitude is headquartered in Pittsburgh with additional engineering hubs in Dearborn, Mich. and Palo Alto, Calif. The company also will operate a highway-speed test track facility in Greenville, S.C.
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