In the race to develop driverless cars, several automakers and technology companies are already testing vehicles that pilot themselves on public roads. And others have outlined plans to expand their development fleets over the next few years.

But few have gone so far as to give a definitive date for the commercial debut of these cars of the future.

Now Ford Motor has done just that.

At a news conference on Tuesday at the company’s research center in Palo Alto, Calif., Mark Fields, Ford’s chief executive, said the company planned to mass produce driverless cars and have them in commercial operation in a ride-hailing service by 2021.

Beyond that, Mr. Fields’s announcement was short on specifics. But he said that the vehicles Ford envisioned would be radically different from those that populate American roads now.

“That means there’s going to be no steering wheel. There’s going to be no gas pedal. There’s going to be no brake pedal,’’ he said. “If someone had told you 10 years ago, or even five years ago, that the C.E.O. of a major automaker American car company is going to be announcing the mass production of fully autonomous vehicles, they would have been called crazy or nuts or both.”

The company also said on Tuesday that as part of the effort, it planned to expand its Palo Alto center, doubling the number of employees who work there over the next year, from the current 130.

Ford also said it had acquired an Israeli start-up, Saips, that specializes in computer vision, a crucial technology for self-driving cars. And the automaker announced investments in three other companies involved in major technologies for driverless vehicles.

For several years, automakers have understood that their industry is being reshaped by the use of advanced computer chips, software and sensors to develop cars designed to drive themselves. The tech companies Google and Apple have emerged as potential future competitors to automakers, while Tesla Motors has already proved a competitive threat to luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz with driver-assistance and collision-avoidance technologies.

More recently, ride-sharing service providers like Uber have raised the competitive concerns of the conventional auto industry. The ride-hailing services aim to operate fleets of driverless cars that, in the future, might provide ready transportation to anyone, making it easier for people to get around without owning a car or even having a driver’s license.

A Ford Fusion equipped with a lidar system, which is a type of radar based on laser beams. CreditFord

A Barclays analyst, Brian Johnson, recently predicted that once autonomous vehicles are in widespread use, auto sales could fall as much as 40 percent as people rely on such services for transportation and choose not to own cars.

Mr. Fields said on Tuesday that the combination of driverless cars and ride-sharing services represented a “seismic shift” for the auto industry that would be greater than the advent of the moving production line was roughly a century ago.

Uber to Put 100 Autonomous Volvo SUVs on Road in Pittsburgh

Uber Technologies this month will let customers in Pittsburgh summon rides from autonomous taxis

Aug. 18, 2016

Uber Technologies Inc. will begin using self-driving taxis to ferry customers around Pittsburgh as soon as this month, a first for the industry in a race among automobile and technology companies to make driverless cars commercially available.

Uber’s service, using specially-equipped Volvo XC90 sport-utility vehicles and Ford Focus, would appear to be the first time that commuters could hail a ride in a driverless car. But while the effort signals a breakthrough in commercialization of the technology, it won’t be a brave new world of robot cars: Two Uber employees will be sitting in the front seat of each vehicle.

One Uber employee will be in the driver’s seat with hands on the steering wheel as an emergency backup, another observing from the passenger seat, the company said. Uber will only make a few cars available to start—with the eventual goal of having 100 in Pittsburgh and possibly elsewhere in the coming months—and they will only go limited distances within the city.

The test, which could begin in as soon as two weeks, is limited. The autonomous vehicles may be assigned at random based on customers’ preference, the start location and the length of the trip.

Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick said the technology is necessary to lower the cost of ride hailing and car ownership, even if it means the future loss of jobs among Uber’s 1.5 million active drivers world-wide.

As part of that effort, Uber said it acquired Ottomotto LLC, a startup that is working on self-driving tractor trailers. Anthony Levandowski, Ottomotto’s chief executive and a co-founder of Google’s driverless car project, will become the head of Uber’s automated-vehicle efforts. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

The announcements are an attempt by Uber to claim pole position in a contest to implement technologies some observers think are years away from safe, widespread use.

General Motors Co which has invested $500 million in Lyft Inc., Uber’s chief rival, plans to test driverless Chevrolet Bolt taxis with its partner next year using technology it acquired earlier this year in a $1 billion deal for startup Cruise Automation Inc. Ford Motor Co. this week set a goal of producing fully self-driving fleet vehicles with no steering wheel or pedals within the next five years.

Volvo Car Corp., owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., has been aggressively developing and advocating for automated car. As part of its announcement, Uber said it struck a $300 million deal with the Swedish auto maker to co-develop additional autonomous-driving SUVs.

Uber doesn’t plan to make autonomous vehicles. Instead, it aims to build the software powering self-driving cars and forge partnerships with auto makers. For the Pittsburgh trial and elsewhere, Uber will buy cars and provide the self-driving technology.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google founded its driverless-car team seven years ago and its vehicles have amassed more than 1.8 million miles in automated driving, yet it hasn’t said when it will bring the technology to market—or even test it with consumers.

“The difference is Uber is in the business today of transporting people and trying to do it as cheaply and efficiently as possible, and this is technology that is existentially important to them,” said Karl Iagnemma, chief executive of Cambridge, Mass-based nuTonomy, which is testing self-driving taxis in Singapore. He said Uber’s plans to start rides so soon also signals that the company’s existing self-driving software likely is more advanced than previously thought.

Uber also aims to be a full-fledged logistics firm, not simply a ride-hailing service. Uber drivers deliver packages and food in several cities, but Mr. Kalanick has said driverless vehicles “should be used to move all the things.”

Proponents of driverless vehicle technology promise a suite of benefits from reducing deaths and congestion to environmental conservation. But much of that depends on software that isn’t yet battle tested and the willingness of regulators.

Indeed there have been some high-profile accidents involving autonomous or semiautonomous vehicles, such as a fatal one in Florida involving Telsa Motors Inc.’s driver assistance software earlier this year.

State regulators largely don’t prohibit self-driving cars. In Pennsylvania, where Uber’s trial is taking place, driverless cars are OK as long as they follow the rules for regular vehicles, including that a licensed driver is behind the steering wheel.

Uber, founded in 2009, only plunged seriously into the autonomous-driving race last year. It recruited researchers and scientists from Carnegie Mellon University, which is based in Pittsburgh, hired the hackers who wirelessly took control of a Jeep in 2015, and earlier this year named former Ford executive Sherif Marakby to head its global vehicle programs.

Delphi, Mobileye Join Forces to Develop Self-Drive System

Pair designing fully autonomous-driving product for car makers to plug into future vehicles

Aug. 23, 2016

Top auto-parts suppliers Delphi Automotive PLC and Mobileye NV are joining forces to develop a fully autonomous driving system that car makers could begin placing in their vehicles beginning in 2019.

The two hope the development partnership will produce off-the-shelf systems for everything from small cars to sport utilities and pickup trucks—and help them carve out a central role in the race to supply technology for driverless vehicles. The tie-up, which was disclosed on Tuesday, comes as big auto makers and tech companies are moving independently on autonomous-vehicle developments.

Delphi, a former General Motors Co. spinoff, and Mobileye, of Jerusalem, now supply auto makers with the sensors and software that are the building blocks of autonomous-vehicle development programs. Shares of both have struggled recently as car sales plateau and customers put pieces in place to eventually develop their own gear.

News of the partnership lifted both stocks: Mobileye rose nearly 8% to $50.21 and Delphi’s gained 3% to $66.08, both in morning trading on Tuesday.

While auto makers generally have turned over more of the work of making components to suppliers, autonomous-vehicle technology is one area they aim to maintain control through in-house expertise. GM earlier this year acquired autonomous-vehicle developer Cruise Automation Inc. to help accelerate its research, and Ford Motor Co. last week said it is investing in or teaming with several tech companies to launch a car without steering wheels or pedals by 2021.

Delphi Chief Executive Kevin Clark said in an interview the two aim to shoulder much of the development burden for auto makers that have grown comfortable with outsourcing critical technology development.

“We’re able to pool the investment as well as the technology and execution risk in one place so it doesn’t have to be duplicated by multiple [auto makers] over and over again,” Mr. Clark said.

The pair will jointly invest “several hundred million dollars” in the effort, but a spokesman declined to provide other details.

In January, Delphi and Mobileye expect to demonstrate a system that can navigate tough road conditions, such as entering a roundabout, merging into highway traffic, or making left turns across multiple traffic lanes.

Both companies have deep relationships with car makers, but their system won’t be ready until 2019. Integrating their tech in future vehicles could take as much as two years, the companies concede, making it unlikely to hit the market until 2021 or 2022.

Mobileye Chairman and Chief Technology Officer Amnon Shashua said the pair hope to overcome any timing hurdles by offering “a new level of driving intelligence,” mimicking a driver’s decision making behind the wheel in complex situations. “If we don’t want to clog a city with robotic systems that get stuck in busy traffic, you must endow these systems with intelligence.”

The time it will take to get into production models might put the pair at a disadvantage. Google parent Alphabet Inc., GM and others have hinted at earlier releases of their gear. Volvo Car Corp. is launching a public test of autonomous vehicles in Sweden next year— Nissan Motor Co. and Tesla Motors Inc. also aim to launch rival systems by decade’s end.

Still, the joint project by Mobileye and Delphi could appeal to smaller and midsize car companies that don’t have the deep pockets of a GM to fund the big capital outlays needed to develop driverless technology in-house. Mobileye already has technology partnerships with BMW AG and chip maker Intel Corp.

Mobileye is a leader in supplying components for semiautonomous systems, including core technology for Tesla’s Autopilot driver-assist system. It also is a leader in providing mapping systems providing images that help a car’s cameras and sensors negotiate roadways in real time.