There's one big thing that Ford isn't doing when it comes to vehicle automation, CEO Mark Fields told me in an interview earlier this year. It isn't building anything resembling Tesla's autopilot system, which made headlines Thursday when news emerged that a driver, Joshua Brown, had collided fatally with a semitrailer truck while the feature was engaged.
Ford isn't alone in its aversion to the type of automation that Tesla is now building into its vehicles. Google has eschewed it, too. And a Volvo executive recently derided autopilot as an unsafe “wannabe” posing as a more advanced system.
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