The news
Ford is set to invest upwards of $7 billion in autonomous vehicles as part of a $29 billion plan to “turn around the company’s automotive business.” According to the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call in February, the investment is planned over a period of 10 years, with $5 billion to be invested from 2021 onwards.
What does that have to do with spatial computing?
Investing in autonomous vehicles means investing in the broad range of technologies that autonomous vehicles rely on—including the ones used for spatial computing applications. That means we can expect this investment to drive innovation in sensors like lidar, machine learning, augmented reality displays, and so on. In short, this multi-billion-dollar investment is one sign among many that spatial computing technology is accelerating rapidly.