Google and Ford may team up to create self-driven carsMumbai, Dec 23(AZINS) If reports are true then Google and Ford will announce a partnership at the Consumer Electronic Show. The joint- venture is said to be a huge step towards automobile technology as well as automated ridesharing.

If Ford’s joint-venture with Google is approved then Ford would gets a huge boost in self-driving software development. Ford only revealed plans this month to begin testing on public streets in California while Google already has 53 test vehicles on the road in California and Texas, with about 1.3 million miles logged in autonomous driving.

A while ago, the cofounder of Google, Sergey Brin said that the company was looking for manufacturing partners that would use the company’s self-driving system, which it believes could someday eliminate the roughly 33,000 annual deaths on U.S. roads.

Google’s deal with Ford is reported to be non-exclusive. Google has been negotiating with several other automobile companies to use its self-driving systems. Most major automakers and a few other companies are also developing their own version of self-driving technology. Nissan, Volvo and Mercedes-Benz are among others promising self driven cars by 2020.

It is understood that the venture would be legally separate from Ford, so as to shield the automaker from liability concerns, although the exact details of the partnership are still unclear. Questions of who will be responsible for any incident involving self-driven cars have been seen as a major problem to putting them on roads. Volvo said it would accept responsibility for crashes in autonomous mode, a pledge followed by Google and Mercedes-Benz.

Reports say that the goal is to eventually launch a taxi or car-sharing services in urban areas that would compete with companies like Ubercabs.

Ford spokesman Alan Hall said, “We keep these discussions private for obvious competitive reasons, and we do not comment on speculation.”