Dallas councilors will vote on Wednesday to approve an economic development deal with Ford in hopes of hosting the automaker’s next autonomous vehicle facility, reported The Dallas Morning News.
Ford, an investor and customer of AV technology company Argo AI, is partnering with Argo to commercialize self-driving technology. The two companies have set up three test vehicle depots in Austin, Miami and Washington DC in advance of their commercialization plans. The Dallas plant, if the location is ultimately chosen by Ford, would be similar to these plants. (Argo also has its own test fleets and facilities in Pittsburgh, Detroit and Palo Alto).
The two companies plan to bring at least 1,000 self-driving vehicles to market via the Lyft rideshare app in a number of cities, starting with Miami and Austin, over the next five years.
If the agenda item passes with Dallas’s Office of Economic Development, Ford could consider over $ 3 million in proposed tax breaks over five years. The city would also provide a $ 250,000 grant to build the facility, which will occupy 32,361 square feet at 2335 Burbank Street. To fulfill the end of the deal, Ford would need to create at least 250 new jobs and invest at least $ 160 million, including the AV fleet, in the property.
The Dallas site is one of the last three locations Ford is looking for for its new AV system. according to city documents. The other two are in California, where Ford’s AV unit is already present. However, Ford could see the benefits of building in Texas, a state that doesn’t require permits to operate driverless autonomous vehicles. California, on the other hand requires separate permits for testing with a driver, testing without a driver, commercial autonomous delivery deployment and commercial Robotax deployment.
Refusing to comment on the Dallas City Council agenda item, Ford said it had not made any decisions or selected additional cities to expand and that “all of this is preliminary.”
“Ford is building its self-driving ridesharing and goods delivery business in Austin, Texas, Miami and Washington, DC and is focused on building a profitable self-driving business,” the company told TechCrunch. “Scaling this technology is key, and it drives us to explore a variety of cities across the US to expand our self-driving services. We’ll share more information about our self-driving business in the future. “
