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

  • Lyft to offer AV service for blind riders
    July 23, 2019
    Lyft has joined forces with Aptiv and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) to bring self-driving technology to its blind and low-vision riders in Las Vegas. The deal extends an agreement last year, in which Aptiv launched 30 autonomous vehicles (AVs) to pick up riders using Lyft’s app. NFB president Mark Riccobono says: “This demonstration will allow future blind drivers to experience and begin providing feedback about this technology, paving the way for the development of a non-visual user in
    Read More
  • Detroit testing for Mobileye AVs
    September 15, 2022
    All-electric AV using both Lidar and radar will be on roads with safety driver in Michigan
    Read More
  • C-ITS in the EU: ‘A little tribal’
    April 1, 2019
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong here are furrowed brows in Brussels and Strasbourg as European Union legislators begin to consider the rules which will underpin future services such as connected vehicles. The idea is to create a regulatory framework to harmonise cooperative ITS
    Read More
  • C-ITS in the EU: ‘A little tribal’
    April 1, 2019
    As the C-ITS Delegated Act begins its journey through the European policy maze, Adam Hill looks at who is expecting what from this proposed framework for connected vehicles – and why some people are insisting that the lawmakers are already getting things wrong here are furrowed brows in Brussels and Strasbourg as European Union legislators begin to consider the rules which will underpin future services such as connected vehicles. The idea is to create a regulatory framework to harmonise cooperative ITS
    Read More

Highlighted Content