Ford will sell you a self-driving car by around 2025, CEO says

Forget just hailing a ride in a self-driving Ford. By sometime around 2025, Ford will instead sell you an autonomous car.

Speaking in Dearborn, Michigan on Monday, Ford CEO Mark Fields admitted that more than just giving the public access to self-driving cars through ride sharing, the carmaker aims to put them in Ford showrooms. “Around mid-decade we’ll make vehicles available for people to purchase for themselves,” Fields said.

“We’re dedicated to putting autonomous vehicles on the road for millions of people, not just those who can afford luxury cars,” Fields added, according to Bloomberg.

This announcement comes just a month after Ford announced it is planning a self-driving car in 2021. That year, the autonomous Ford, which will come without a steering wheel or pedals, will hit the streets in a ride-sharing model.

At that original announcement, Ford stipulated it could sell the cars to customers once the price of the tech driving the car (like LiDAR sensors, etc.) decreased. Personally, I thought this would take quite a while -- a decade, perhaps. However, it seems Ford's Fields sees prices dropping faster than that.

This is good news for car owners who like to keep their belongings in their car and don't want to share a ride.

That said, I don't expect the prices to come down too far in four or five years after the car's initial debut. It'll still likely be cheaper to share a self-driving Ford than own one. Still, though, the prospect alone is pretty exciting.