What to Think, Ep. 36: Ford CEO Mark Fields tells us why his company’s in no hurry to make self-driving cars

LAS VEGAS — Ford Motor Company has always been about making cars affordable for middle class people, and the company is taking the same approach to self-driving and driver-assisted technology.

Ford Motor Company CEO Mark Fields told us at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show this week that his company isn’t falling all over itself trying to release a fully autonomous vehicle, although Fields believes somebody will do just that in the next five years.

So while Ford is testing a self-driving car now, it doesn’t expect to release one until self-driving technology becomes more affordable. Lots of cultural and regulatory issues need sorting as well.

On the What to Think podcast this week, we talk to Fields and Ford’s CTO Raj Nair about the automaker’s plans in the self-driving car space, its new Sync 3 in-car infotainment system, and Ford’s new worldwide car-sharing experiments (which were announced at CES).

We also discuss some of the major themes and interesting products we’ve seen so far here at CES, including:

• Samsung’s announcements at its press conference and keynote address
• The dominance of the wearables space at this year’s show

(See our complete coverage of CES 2015.)

All this and more is in our latest weekly episode. Check it out!

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Enjoy the show!