Ford AVs on streets of Washington, DC

Ford is to be the first company to test autonomous vehicles (AVs) in Washington, DC – with a view to starting a commercial service there in 2021. The car company – which already has AV trials in Detroit, Pittsburgh and Miami - will begin testing in the US capital early next year. An operations centre will be set up in the city and Sherif Marakby, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, says fleet deployment will be done in a way that aids job creation. The company plans to work with local officials to tes
October 24, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Ford is to be the first company to test autonomous vehicles (AVs) in Washington, DC – with a view to starting a commercial service there in 2021.


The car company – which already has AV trials in Detroit, Pittsburgh and Miami - will begin testing in the US capital early next year.

An operations centre will be set up in the city and Sherif Marakby, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, says fleet deployment will be done in a way that aids job creation.

The company plans to work with local officials to test self-driving vehicles in all eight of the district’s wards in a bid to ensure that the entire population has access to the potential benefits.

“We believe that ensuring widespread access to mobility services enabled by self-driving vehicles is vital,” Marakby says, referring to a report by Securing America’s Future Energy, which said AVs could improve people’s access to work.

“The advent of self-driving vehicles promises a chance to make it more affordable and easier for people to get to jobs by filling gaps in access to public transportation, new ways to deliver food and other products, and more,” adds Marakby.

Ford is also to be part of an agreement with ride-hailing firms Uber and Lyft to make data sets available on the SharedStreets platform.

Announced at the second annual Bloomberg Global Business Forum in New York, the deal is aimed at providing a common standard for sharing data across all cities.

SharedStreets is funded by the Bloomberg Philanthropies consortium and is designed to make it easier for the private sector to work with cities around the world and utilise data to improve mobility.

Related Content

  • October 2, 2018
    Shock therapy: jolt for EV charging needed
    As sales of electric vehicles accelerate, the growth of charging infrastructure is in need of a big boost. Graham Anderson reports on whether Europe is up to it. Utilities, technology companies and vehicle manufacturers are battling to put in place new charging networks for electric vehicles (EVs) across Europe in response to a predicted dramatic surge in demand. Market experts believe that rapidly falling battery costs – which make up about one third of the costs of an electric car – and growing
    Read More
  • January 9, 2018
    Making the most of Michigan
    Michigan DoT’s Kirk Steudle takes time out from the ITS World Congress in Montreal to talk to Colin Sowman. Thirty years ago, a professional engineer named Kirk Steudle joined Michigan Department of Transportation (MDoT). Today he’s the state transportation director, responsible for more than 16,000km (10,000 miles) of state highways (including 4,000 bridges), some 2,500 employees and a budget of more than $4 billion. We caught up with Steudle during the ITS World Congress in Montreal and asked how he
    Read More
  • December 3, 2018
    Panasonic in Colorado: Rocky mountain way
    Panasonic is at the heart of a C-V2X project which began last year in Colorado. The company’s smart mobility boss Chris Armstrong tells Adam Hill how it is working out Colorado needs traffic and transport solutions – and fast. The US state’s population has grown 50% in the last 20 years and another 50% hike is predicted in the next 20. It also spends more than $13 billion in roadway crash costs each year. In 2015, 546 people died in traffic-related crashes, and more than 3,000 were seriously injured.
    Read More
  • February 20, 2019
    StreetLight Data maps future
    Laura Schewel of StreetLight Data talks to Adam Hill about the importance of measuring what you do – and about how paint will remain perhaps the most important piece of technology in the city planners’ armoury for a decade to come Transportation is dangerous, responsible for 30% of global cargo emissions today. Some experts believe that it will be responsible for 80% by 2050. And that’s before you even get on to the safety question - just ask tech entrepreneur Laura Schewel. “Transportation is getting wo
    Read More

Highlighted Content