Ford Executive Claims Self Driving Cars Need To Be Crushed After 4 Years Due To Wear And Tear

Ford Autonomous Vehicles operations chief John Rich believes in a future where the world’s roads are populated by full self-driving vehicles. In a recent interview, the executive revealed that he also believes that this upcoming world will have autonomous cars that only last four years before they are retired.

Rich’s point comes as a response to the idea that when self-driving vehicles become mainstream, the demand for cars will start waning.   While speaking with The Telegraph, the Ford executive argued that this will not be the case. Rich noted that he is in no way worried about the future of Ford’s car sales, as the turnover rate of vehicles will be quicker with autonomous technology. 

“The thing that worries me least in this world is decreasing demand for cars. We will exhaust and crush a car every four years in this business,” he said.

Agent009 - 8/27/2019 10:51:03 AM

+1 Boost

So that $80K self driving EV They want to sell you will only have a service life of 4 years?

SanJoseDriver - 9/4/2019 3:54:08 PM

+1 Boost

I think a base AV will be around $50 and offer 250,000-1,000,000 miles of use

TomM - 8/27/2019 11:19:33 AM

+2 Boost

I think it is going to be like Inspections in Japan where they almost take apart the car - and they are generally no worth doing it. Somehow they will have to determine that the Electronics are in good condition - and today Electronics have a life of only 3-4 years - after which they have been superseded by newer better chips.

atc98092 - 8/27/2019 3:21:11 PM

+2 Boost

I think he's wrong, but he's envisioning these cars being used in services that see them in almost constant use. Under that scenario, they could easily have several hundred thousand miles on them in four years. And yes, cars are recycled with far less mileage than that. He also expects these cars to still have combustion engines, so that figures into his calculations as well.

But I don't think we'll move away from personal auto ownership in the near future. So these cars would get about the same annual mileage that current cars get, and would last as long (or longer) than current cars. With their simplified maintenance requirements, EVs would cost far less to own over a number of years, even with an initial price premium.