Ford Picks Miami-Dade To Test Out Self-Driving Cars
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The future is now in Miami-Dade County when it comes to self-driving vehicles.
Ford Motor Company is partnering with the county to test new technology that could one-day lead to driverless cars being commonplace on our roads.
But for now, they're already on our roads.
"Autonomous vehicles are going to be here a lot sooner than people think. They're going to revolutionize transportation not only here but around the world," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
And, a big plus, they deliver.
"We started last week...actually delivering already with Dominos, starting last week and you're going to start seeing more the technology cars on the roads," said Sherif Marakby, VP of Autonomous Vehicles and electrification.
It's not just pizza riding around in the driverless cars.
"We're combining both the people moving and the goods moving so we're actually going to be delivering things, not just having people move, so we're taking that model to the next level," said Marakby.
Miami won the bid as the first city to partner with Ford's self-driving cars in an effort to study and alleviate traffic and transport people and goods.
If you're iffy about getting in a driverless car, don't worry, it's all happening in baby steps.
"So we start with humans actually supervising it and much of the same way you think about teaching a driver, a new driver, a student driver, will you start by saying I'm going to train you and I'm going to be right there along the way," said Pete Rander, President of Argo AI.
So, when can you expect to hop in one of these driverless cars?
"The mutually stated goal for Ford and Argo is to bring self-driving out into mobility services moving people, moving goods in that kind of timeframe," said Rander. "Somewhere between now and then where it makes sense we'll be giving people the opportunity to get into that."
