Ford Motor Co. mentioned it’s creating an entirely owned subsidiary named Latitude AI to analysis and develop automated driving applied sciences.

Latitude’s formation underscores the corporate’s deal with automated applied sciences that help human drivers in personally owned autos.

However the firm has its roots in self-driving know-how: Its 550-person employees will largely be comprised of the 550 staff Ford employed from Argo AI, the self-driving startup that folded final October.

When Ford pulled its help from Argo, it mentioned it had determined to focus on the kinds of automated programs that help human drivers reasonably than eradicate their function within the driving course of.

Whereas there are various technical similarities between the self-driving programs Argo developed and the driver-support programs Latitude is tasked with constructing, there’s a stark, elementary distinction: One was designed for no human involvement, one will combine human involvement.

Latitude begins with that premise of the latter: the Pittsburgh-based firm will deal with creating automation categorized as SAE Ranges 2 and three for next-generation Ford autos. Certainly one of its preliminary duties shall be to develop a hands-free, eyes-off-the-road system, Ford mentioned Thursday.

“We see automated driving know-how as a possibility to redefine the connection between folks and their autos,” Doug Subject, chief superior product improvement and know-how officer at Ford, mentioned.

Sammy Omari, government director of superior driver-assist applied sciences at Ford, shall be CEO of Latitude. Peter Carr has been appointed chief know-how officer of the subsidiary, and David Gollob will function its president.

Primarily based in Pittsburgh, with different engineering hubs in Palo Alto, California, and Dearborn, Michigan, the 550-member group will deal with machine studying, robotics, software program and different underpinnings of assisted driving and conditional automation, Ford mentioned.

The subsidiary’s formation marks an growth from the automaker’s ongoing efforts in these areas. Ford already companions with Mobileye within the superior driver-assistance realm, and the 2 have labored collectively on Ford’s BlueCruise system, which Shopper Reviews ranked because the best-available driver help system in the marketplace in January.

Drivers have already got amassed greater than 50 million miles of hands-free driving utilizing BlueCruise, Ford mentioned Thursday.

Against this, no self-driving autos are on sale for customers at present. Ford CEO Jim Farley mentioned self-driving autos, by which people don’t have any function within the driving course of, had been “a great distance off” when he revealed plans to finish help of now-defunct Argo final October.