Ford's new affordable electric ute to debut eyes-off driving in 2028

Ford says it will be “deomcratising autonomy” when it launches an eyes-off-the-road autonomous driving system in 2028 in one of its most affordable vehicles, a new electric ute tipped to be christened Ranchero.

Doug Field, Ford’s Chief EV, Digital and Design Officer, made the announcement at this CES in Las Vegas. He said Ford’s Level 3 self-driving tech was developed “for the many, not just a privileged few”.

Mr Field claims the automaker is able to put the technology into “vehicles people actually buy” because it developed the software and hardware for the system in-house, making it about 30 per cent cheaper than buying a solution from an external supplier.

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The first car to feature the new self-driving system will be the company’s upcoming affordable electric pickup. Announced in August, the new ute is based on a Ford skunkworks-developed Universal EV Platform.

Around the size of the Ranger, the new ute, which is tipped to be called the Ranchero, is scheduled to debut in 2027 and will be priced from US$30,000 (A$45,000). For context, Ford’s two cheapest models in the US are the Maverick dual-cab hybrid, which begins at US$28,145, and the Escape medium SUV that kicks off from US$30,350.

In a Level 3 system, the car is able to drive itself without constant human oversight, allowing the person sitting in the driver’s seat to potentially watch a movie, use a computer, or play a game. They will need to stay alert and awake, though, because the vehicle could prompt them to take over if there’s something it can’t handle, or the end of the self-driven journey is approaching.

Most self-driving systems available to the public globally today, including in Australia, are Level 2 or ‘Level 2+’, and if anything goes awry legal responsibility falls to the driver. When cars are driven by a Level 3 system, the legal onus shifts to the manufacturer.

Ford has been investing heavily in autonomous driving tech for over a decade. In addition to its own research and development, in 2017 it bought the startup Argo AI which aimed to have Level 4 self-driving cars available by the turn of the decade. After billions in investment and adding Volkswagen as a co-investor, Argo AI was shut down in 2022.

The company’s most advanced self-driving system is BlueCruise, which allows for hands-free eyes-on-the-road driving on around 209,000km of controlled access highways in the USA and Canada. Ford claims there are 1.2 million cars on the road equipped with BlueCruise.

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