When Ford hired Jim Hackett as its new chief executive officer last month, he delivered a mandate: In a rapidly changing industry, the automaker no longer could afford to take a plodding approach to making decisions. Ford needed to move faster.
The company took a step in that direction Thursday, consolidating its artificial-intelligence and robotics researchers into a single new team that will explore using those technologies on a broad range of transportation projects.
The team will report to Randy Visintainer, Ford?s director of autonomous-vehicle development and controls. While self-driving vehicles will be a significant focus, they won?t be the lone one. Ford expects the researchers will evaluate artificial-intelligence applications for drones, mobility projects, and the technical requirements for entry into global markets ?I can tell you there?s so much going on in the world of advanced engineering, it?s imperative that we maintain a crystal-clear focus on the most important elements to help us achieve our vision of changing the way the world moves,? wrote Ken Washington, Ford?s chief technology officer, in a Medium blog post.

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?This means you?ll likely see at least two separate fleets of self-driving vehicles on the road, one led by the Ford team conducting advanced research and another by Argo AI.?
?Ken Washington, Ford
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Some of those visions are well documented, with the company?s recent investments in artificial-intelligence and high-definition mapping compani...