Ford said Tuesday it plans to roll out new a partnership with logistics company Postmates for autonomous delivery services, and plans other initiatives meant to reposition the automaker as a mobility company.

Jim Hackett is expected to announce several of the initiatives during a keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show on Tuesday. Hackett laid out plans Tuesday for steering the company toward seizing new opportunities in transportation, and meeting the challenges posed by tech firms.

Among them Ford is partnering with Postmates to test self-driving technology for deliveries. The companies will conduct pilot services throughout the year to evaluate the utility of self-driving technology.

Ford will also work with Silicon Valley transportation software company Autonomic to build a cloud-based platform for base processes, such payment methods or identity verification. Ford made an investment in Autonomic last year.

The second-largest U.S. automaker is also launching and testing a new transportation-as-a-service platform this year. Ford plans to work with partners seeking to access its fleet of self-driving vehicles to deliver services or products.

Ford will expand its self-driving technology development with a growing fleet of Argo AI test vehicles in a new city, which will be the first where Ford plans to deploy an autonomous vehicle business. It did not name the city.

The company also said it will use Waze navigation software. This will allow users to access the real time traffic and navigation services projected onto the Ford’s SYNC 3 touch screen and by voice commands.

Source: Tech CNBC
Ford to partner with Postmates on self-driving deliveries