Ford to offer eyeless driving technology with $30,000 electric vehicle in 2028

Ford engine plans to introduce eyeless driving technology on an upcoming $30,000 all-electric vehicle in 2028, the Detroit automaker announced Wednesday.

This goal puts Ford in a race against competitors such as Tesla, General engines And Rivian Automobile develop and widely launch such systems, which Wall Street sees as a potential growth market for fully autonomous vehicles.

Ford’s plan is similar to other automakers, but notably the company plans to offer the new system first on a mainstream electric vehicle, rather than a more expensive model, defying typical technology rollouts in the auto industry.

“It’s part of what has evolved into a broader technology strategy of putting our best and latest technology where the volume is and where the affordability is,” Doug Field, Ford’s head of electric vehicles, digital and design, told CNBC in an interview.

The first vehicle with the new system is expected to be built on the company’s upcoming “universal EV platform,” which Ford says is capable of supporting a variety of vehicles. The first is a mid-size pickup truck for around $30,000 that is expected to hit the market in 2027.

Field, who joined Ford after working at Apple and Tesla, said the first vehicle equipped with the eyes-closed system would be offered at that starting price, but did not reveal whether it would be the pickup truck.

Field announced the Eyes-Off system at the CES technology show in Las Vegas, along with other projects, including a new software architecture for the vehicle as well as an artificial intelligence assistant designed by Ford.

GM announced similar projects in October, including an AI assistant and eye detection system expected to launch in 2028 on its electric Cadillac Escalade IQ. This vehicle currently starts at over $127,000.

Ford, led by CEO Jim Farley, is under pressure to deliver the new vehicle platform, known as UEV, and its supporting technologies, which fall largely under Field.

The company has wasted billions of dollars due to changing electric vehicle strategies as well as quality and production issues in recent years.

Ford has significantly reduced its spending on electric vehicles and shifted its focus from large, all-electric pickup trucks and SUVs to smaller, more affordable models thanks to a special project, or “skunkworks,” a team that created the UEV platform. Ford has announced plans to invest about $5 billion in U.S. factories to produce the vehicles and the batteries that will power them.

Field called the Skunkworks team a “gamble” over the past two years that has “started to build a huge amount of trust” over the “last few months.”

He said Ford now has all the critical software and supporting hardware it needs in-house for a new generation of technologically advanced vehicles to differentiate the automaker.

“One of the things we’re seeing is how much faster our development process works on this product and this architecture compared to what we’ve done in the past,” Field said. “So we have a lot of confidence in our ability to get this out.”

Ford said last month that it expects to record about $19.5 billion in special items through 2027 related to those restructuring efforts and the withdrawal of its investments in electric vehicles.

Field said Ford’s planned eye detection system, which the auto industry calls “Level 3 driving automation,” will use an array of sensors and in-house software development to reduce costs compared to those of its competitors.

Field declined to comment on the road map for expanding the new system to other vehicles, but said the goal was to make the technology commonplace.

“The actual deployment timeline will depend on a lot of work we need to do to find out which customers need it in their applications, when, and which products are most ready to use it now,” Field said. “It will take time to roll it out everywhere, but we will prioritize this based on the areas where we will have the greatest impact on customers.”

SAE International, formerly known as the Society of Automotive Engineers, has characterized automated driving for vehicles from Level 0 to Level 5. The highest level, Level 5, is a fully autonomous vehicle, with each step from Level 0 adding more technology and allowing human drivers to be more “out of the loop.”

Ford currently offers a Level 2 Advanced Driver Assistance System, or ADAS, known as BlueCruise. When active, a vehicle can drive itself in certain circumstances without human intervention on divided highways, but drivers should still pay attention to the roads and the system in case of problems.

Ford’s new AI assistant is expected to launch in early 2026 via its phone apps for Ford and Lincoln, followed by a native in-vehicle experience starting in 2027, the company announced Wednesday.

Several other automakers have also announced plans for AI digital assistants, but Field said he believes Ford will offer unique capabilities specific to each car or truck using each vehicle’s unique identification number.

Ford said the AI ​​assistant will be able to look at a photo of a trailer to confirm whether a vehicle can tow it properly, for example, or assess how many bags of mulch the interior of a car or truck can hold.

“The AI ​​companion is something we think we can make special for Ford, representative of what we’re trying to do on the customer experience side,” Field said.

This improved customer experience should be facilitated by an updated internal software architecture that Ford calls an “integrated digital platform” that will debut with the UEV platform.

The company said the updated system would result in “a more unified ‘brain’ inside the vehicle – a single, powerful module that unifies infotainment, ADAS, audio and networking.”

“For customers, this means a vehicle that feels more consistent, more reliable and more capable year after year,” Field said in a blog post accompanying the CES announcements.