Smart of Ford to partner with Google on this IMO.  Besides Tesla who seem to know what they&#x27;re doing, I find it pretty strange that most(?) other auto companies seem to be basically going it alone on autonomous driving with an (understandable) complete lack of know-how when it comes to software (think, e.g., Toyota with its 80K or however many global variables).<p>I was listening to a radio program (KQED&#x27;s Forum [1]) where they discussed the California DMV&#x27;s new proposed regulations for self-driving cars, and from the point of view of someone who isn&#x27;t insanely arrogant about humans&#x27; ability to safely operate cars, they seem quite draconian and luddite-ish.  Google made a statement about these proposed regulations that echoed my feelings, but Audi was on the program defending the regulations and claiming anything approaching fully autonomous driving was a couple of <i>decades</i> away.  This seems to indicate that they are at least a decade behind Google who claim they&#x27;re already there or will be within ~5 years, so it sort of blows my mind that they wouldn&#x27;t be trying hard to partner with them or another firm (perhaps Uber?) that actually understands software (and particularly AI).<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kqed.org&#x2F;a&#x2F;forum&#x2F;R201512180900" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kqed.org&#x2F;a&#x2F;forum&#x2F;R201512180900</a>