As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, companies who have had plans for 2020 to launch new products or services have no doubt had to put them on the backburner. For example, we’ve seen how several major events being cancelled, and there are also rumors that products like the iPhone could be delayed.Now it looks like Ford’s plans to launch its self-driving taxis will also be delayed, where according to a report from TechCrunch, the company will be delaying the launch until 2022. This was revealed during Ford’s quarterly earnings where the company also reported a $2 billion loss in the first quarter of the year, versus a $1.1 billion profit from the same period a year before.
According to Ford, “Given the challenges of the current business environment, as well as the need to evaluate the long-term impact of COVID-19 on customer behaviors, Ford made the decision to shift the launch of its self-driving services to 2022. Understanding customer behavior is a critically important part of building a new mobility service built around trust and making people’s lives easier.”
What’s interesting is that we imagine that self-driving vehicles are actually perfect in this crisis. This is because with social distancing measures being put into place, using a self-driving taxi to get around might be safer compared to a regular taxi driven by a human.
Filed in . Read more about Ford and Self-Driving Cars. Source: techcrunch