- Ford (NYSE:F +1.9%) says it's received a permit to begin tests of its fully autonomous self-driving Fusion Hybrid models on California's public roads.
- The company is expanding work on autonomous vehicles at its Palo Alto Research and Innovation Center, where it has more than 100 employees working on the project after it opened in January.
- The lab has conducted research on virtual test driving, fusing the views that various sensors on a vehicle provide, pedestrian detection, and data-driven health care for rural Africa.
- Google (the old name for Alphabet) had said a year ago that it was talking with Ford as well as GM, Toyota and others about bringing a self-driving car to market by 2020.
- Ford also will work with cloud company Pivotal to speed up its connected-car work and boost its recently launched Ford SYNC Connect offering. Initial features include door lock/unlock, scheduling starts to warm up or cool down the vehicle, check fuel/oil levels and locating the vehicle.