Ford Pushes Ahead With Self-Driving Car Development, Expands Silicon Valley Presence

Ford Motor along with Baidu, a Chinese search engine are making a combined $150 million dollar investment in a company called Velodyne. Ford has worked with Velodnye for the past decade, but this is the first investment it has made in the company. Velodyne makes sensor technology, known as LiDAR, which is used in self driving cars. Fields says the automaker is open to increasing its investment in the company, partnering with others or developing more technology in-house in the race toward autonomous vehicles. As part of the plan to develop technology in-house, Ford also announced that it is expanding its Silicon Valley operations and creating a dedicated campus in Palo Alto and adding two new buildings of work and lab space adjacent to its current facility. Fields says the company also plans to double the size of its workforce in Palo Alto to roughly 250 people. TheStreet's Ruben Ramirez spoke with Fields from the automaker's research facility in Palo Alto, California.