Ford will test driverless cars in Europe starting next year

Ford announced it will plans to start testing its autonomous vehicles on European roads by next year as it ramps up its robot car strategy. According to Digital Trends the U.S. car manufacturing goliath is moving ahead with European testing as it pursues its ambitious strategy to introduce fully autonomous vehicles for ride-hailing by 2021. "It is important that we extend our testing to Europe," said Ford of Europe's manager for Automated Driving Thomas Lukaszewicz. "Rules of the road vary from country to country here, traffic signs and road layouts are different, and drivers are likely to share congested roads with cyclists." Testing will begin at Ford's Engineering Center in Essex, U.K. After this, trials will be expanded to its Germany-based Research & Advanced Engineering facilities in Cologne and Aachen.