Ford and Lyft are working to bring self-driving cars to the ride-sharing network

Ford Motor Co. is pressing the accelerator in its pursuit of driverless car technology.

The automaker, which employs more than 7,000 people at the Claycomo assembly plant, has teamed up with ride-sharing company Lyft. Someday, the two entities believe, people using the Lyft app to call for a ride will be greeted by a driverless Ford.

“Today, we’re announcing a significant step toward bringing self-driving vehicles to the masses thanks to a new partnership with Lyft that will help both companies progress toward a more affordable, dependable and accessible transportation future,” Sherif Marakby, Ford’s vice president for autonomous vehicles and electrification, wrote Wednesday on the blog Medium.com

The companies will work together to figure out which cities are best for the self-driving rollout and what kind of infrastructure is needed to make it work, Marakby told Businessinsider.com

Reuters reported that Ford will put human-driven vehicles on Lyft’s network at first. It is not clear when Ford and Lyft expect to offer the first rides in self-driving cars.

“We’re not building prototypes for the sake of building prototypes,” Marakby told the news service, adding that Ford intends to ultimately put thousands of self-driving vehicles in use.

“Some view the opportunity with self-driving vehicles as a race to be first,” Marakby wrote in his blog post. “But we are focusing our efforts on building a service based around actual people’s needs and wants. We are placing a high priority on safety and dependability so customers will trust the experience that our self-driving technology will one day enable.

Ford is currently testing a pizza delivery service in Ann Arbor, Mich., with partner Domino’s. Ford is also working with artificial intelligence company Argo AI.

Lyft is opening a laboratory in Silicon Valley to develop the technology for driverless cars. It is expected to employ hundreds of people by the end of 2018.

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 2:43 PM with the headline "Ford and Lyft are working to bring self-driving cars to the ride-sharing network."