Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Ford Motor Co. reported its fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, where CEO Jim Farley was asked during the earnings call about a potential partnership on autonomous driving technology.
Farley said the company “will make a practical decision,” admitting that the team is aware of Tesla’s full self driving (FSD) software.
Asked about the option to establish a partnership on autonomous driving, Farley said the company is “at that point where we have to decide” before noting Ford’s customers have driven over 300 miles using the in-house BlueCruise software.
“Customers are still paying for it. We did drop the price by the way, so it is getting commoditized to some extent, but it is still a great opportunity,” Ford’s chief executive stated. “But the capability in the company is growing.”
In 2022, Argo AI, the self-driving company backed by Ford and Volkswagen, ceased operations. The autonomous vehicle startup, burst onto the scene in 2017 with a $1 billion investment from Ford.
“All those Argo people that came with Ford, they are developing a really nice Level 2, Level 3 system that we think will be among the best in its execution,” Farley said.
The chief executive said the company’s software “is continuing to win all the consumer awards for the best operating system on Level 2” adding that “Level 2+ is around the corner.”
Without naming Tesla, Farley said the automaker does not refuse to not “look at other people’s system or not believe that Level 4 personal autonomy is going to be interesting at some point.”
“They’re making a lot of progress over there on Level 4, and it is time for us, not just in the US, but globally, they’re looking at and that’s why we made some of the announcements we did today because we need a strong strategy team to decide do we partner, do we continue to ride our own team into this Level 4 personal autonomy, and I think you’re going to find just like our move on Argo, we’ll be thoughtful and practical,” he stated.
Farley said the team knows Tesla’s FSD system, “They know what’s out there. They know the Waymo’s system as they get democratized for Level 4 — individual Level 4.”
Farley said he thinks Ford “will make a good decision” noting again that the company is “a lot closer to that partnering decision.”
At the time of writing, Ford shares are down 7% to $9.34 following larger-than-expected losses in its EV unit and a weaker 2025 forecast. Total revenue increased both sequentially and year over year to $48.2 billion.
