A key component driving the development of driverless cars is machine learning and other artificial intelligence capabilities along with computer vision approaches used for image and signal processing. Ford Motor Co., which is targeting fully autonomous vehicles for ride sharing by 2021, unveiled a series of machine learning and machine vision deals as it doubles the size of it Silicon Valley research campus. The U.S. carmaker (NYSE: F) announced an acquisition and others investments on Tuesday (Aug. Ford also disclosed a licensing deal with machine vision specialist Nirenberg Neuroscience, who is credited with cracking the code the eye uses to transmit visual information to the brain. Furthering its autonomous vehicle initiative, Ford also announced an investment in the 3-D mapping startup, Civil Maps.