Ford Motor Company has established a subsidiary called Latitude AI, which will focus on developing automated driving systems for millions of vehicles. Latitude comprises a team of machine learning, robotics, software, sensors, systems engineering, and operations experts. The move allows Ford to accelerate the development of new automated driving technology, including Ford BlueCruise, which has already racked up more than 50 million miles of hands-free driving. The subsidiary aims to improve the customer experience by automating driving during times that can be tedious and unpleasant, such as bumper-to-bumper traffic or long highway stretches.
Ford’s strategic shift to focus on automated driving technologies for personally owned vehicles last year resulted in the automaker hiring roughly 550 employees from Argo AI across multiple domains, including machine learning and robotics, cloud platforms, mapping, sensors, and compute systems, test operations, systems, and safety engineering. The Latitude team has applied its automated driving experience, including software development tools and infrastructure, to develop advanced driver assist systems (ADAS). The Latitude team’s deep expertise and talent will complement Ford’s in-house global ADAS team to develop future driver assist technologies.
Sammy Omari, Executive Director of ADAS Technologies at Ford, will serve as the CEO of Latitude, while Peter Carr will be the chief technology officer responsible for Latitude’s product and technical development. David Gollob is named the president of Latitude with responsibility for business operations. The company aims to redefine the relationship between people and their vehicles, allowing customers to experience safer, less stressful, and more enjoyable driving. Latitude is headquartered in Pittsburgh, with engineering hubs in Dearborn, Mich., and Palo Alto, Calif. The company will also operate a highway-speed test track facility in Greenville, S.C.
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