Close on the heels of investing in Velodyne, Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) disclosed its intention to produce a high-volume, fully autonomous SAE level 4-capable vehicle. The Detroit auto maker also created its own "personal-mobility" brand called Maven and acquired the Silicon Valley autonomous-driving startup Cruise Automation Inc.to aid development efforts.

On Tuesday at the company's research facility in Palo Alto, California, CEO Mark Fields announced that the company will mass-produce autonomous vehicles by 2021.

Ford says it has now abandoned plans to develop bridge steps within its vehicles and is heading straight to fully-autonomous. Ford and Chinese search engine giant Baidu Inc. are investing $75 million each into Velodyne.

When you digitally hail a robo-taxi on the on the streets of your megalopolis in five years, it just might bear a Ford blue oval badge.

The company has already dumped $150 million into Velodyne through a joint investment with Baidu.

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Salkida released a statement on Monday saying the Army knew he was not in the country prior to being declared wanted. Salkida had said on Twitter that the video was sent exclusively to him before the sect uploaded it to YouTube .

"They want to do as much as they can internally, but also acknowledge that it's best to partner with those who have the leading technology", Jeff Schuster, an analyst at research firm LMC Automotive, said of Ford.

Mr Nair also said Ford, unlike many of its competitors, has no plans to offer highly automated, but incremental systems that would still require drivers to take the wheel. Raj Nair, Ford executive vice president of Global Product Development, said they would be geo-fenced to particular urban areas.

Ford backs up this plan by doubling the staff in its Silicon Valley Research and Innovation Center, and adding two new buildings. Baidu is testing autonomous vehicles in China, where it hopes to cut road congestion. "We envision a future ride service having vehicles in it that we engineer and service, and provide a service to our customers". Lidar bounces light off objects to assess shape and location, giving self-driving cars a 360-degree view of their environment with the help of cameras and traditional radar.

To get there, Ford is working with a number of startups, including a new investment in Velodyne, a firm that makes LIDAR sensors; the acquisition of SAIPS, an Israeli company that makes computer vision and machine learning software; an exclusive licensing agreement with "virtual retina" technology company Nirenberg Neuroscience, LLC; and a previously announced investment in 3D-mapping company Civil Maps.