Autonomous Driving: Ford, Toyota and GM Create Partnership

We’ve said before: Like it or not, self-driving vehicles are at our doorstep. The questions that surround their pending arrival are several, however: How deeply and how quickly will they penetrate the market? How will consumers respond to the new products? How will governments legislate to enable them to coexist safely with other vehicles on the road?

These questions have yet to be fully answered.

Three big automotive players have created a consortium to try and provide direction and, hopefully, answers in the domain. Ford, GM and Toyota are partnering in the new entity with SAE International, a group implicated in all things to do worth automotive engineering, with the objective of ensuring optimal safety in regards to autonomous-drive vehicles.

The new entity, called the Automated Vehicle Safety Consortium (AVSC), will focus first on the development and testing of self-driving vehicles operating on SAE 4 and SAE 5 levels.