Fields added that “when a company says they’re going to have an autonomous vehicle,” the question it should be asked be “at what level.”
In Ford’s case, as he told CNBC, “we said a level four vehicle in 2021″—or “high automation” as defined by SAE, which entails that the automated system can perform all aspects of the driving task when set in specific driving modes, “even if a human driver does not respond appropriately to a request to intervene.”