Ford CEO shuts down Tesla Full Self-Driving deal, says Waymo is better

[ChasingCoral]

https://electrek.co/2025/06/30/ford...dblGgatLijRSLCEt16_aem_P171Y07Kh-ujzALmxgxmQA

Ford CEO shuts down Tesla Full Self-Driving deal, says Waymo is better

Fred Lambert| Jun 30 2025 - 7:04 am PT
210 Comments

Ford has long been rumored to be in discussions with Tesla about licensing its Full Self-Driving technology, but CEO Jim Farley has now shut down those rumors.

Farley confirmed that Ford talked with Tesla, but he believes Waymo has a better solution.

Back in 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned that he had early discussions with other automakers about licensing self-driving technology, but these discussions didn’t lead to any agreements.

In 2023, the CEO announced that Tesla would be open to licensing Autopilot and FSD to other automakers.
https://paid.outbrain.com/network/r...DUxYWJq4fdJ_Jfc8lU2B3zSXDueAfs&c=c082172c&v=4
However, a few months later, Musk said “automakers don’t believe Tesla Full Self-Driving is real”, but he claimed they will soon.
In 2024, Musk claimed that Tesla was in discussions with “one major automaker about licensing Full Self-Driving.”

Ford was rumored to be the automaker in question due to its limited effort in autonomous driving and the fact that it was the first automaker to initiate the adoption of Tesla’s charge connector as the new North American standard.

The rumors might have been true, as CEO Jim Farley confirmed that Ford was in talks with Tesla about self-driving during a talk at the Aspen Ideas Festival last week.

He said that he talked with Musk and admitted that both Waymo and Tesla have made progress toward self-driving, but he sees LIDAR, which Waymo uses but Tesla does not, as a critical part of self-driving.

Farley was directly asked what approach made more sense (via Fortune):

“To us, Waymo,” Farley said. He pointed out that both Waymo, owned by Google-parent Alphabet, and Tesla “have made a lot of progress” on self-driving, and Farley acknowledged that he has had conversations with Elon Musk. But he stated that Ford considered LiDAR to be an important part of the picture, noting that “where the camera will be completely blinded, the LiDAR system will see exactly what’s in front of you.”

Ford invested approximately $1 billion in Argo AI, a self-driving startup in partnership with Volkswagen. However, it ceased funding the company in 2022, and Argo AI was subsequently dissolved, with the two automakers integrating their technology.

After this setback, Ford said it would partner with self-driving companies once the technology is further developed.

Waymo has first been focused on developing its own vehicles for autonomous ride-hailing, while Tesla has been trying to bring consumer autonomous vehicles to market.

These different approaches have been reversing lately with Tesla launching a pilot program for its own autonomous ride-hailing fleet after years of failing making its consumer vehicles self-driving.

Top comment by Anupreet Singh
Liked by 25 people
Farley says it the way he sees it. In addition to criticizing FSD's camera-only approach, he also recently discussed how humbling the impressive technological growth in China has been. I have been harsh on Farley because of the misses Ford had with EV technology, but I think he's spot on with both these analyses.
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Meanwhile, Waymo has recently been securing deals with Toyota and Hyundai about integrating its self-driving technology into their consumer vehicles.

Electrek’s Take
Tesla shareholders have been hoping for those talks that Musk has been teasing for years to come to fruition, and have an automaker validate Tesla’s approach to self-driving.

It looks like it won’t be Ford and it looks like Ford might have been that “one major automaker” in discussion with Tesla.

As Farley put it, they want to take a careful approach to self-driving, and if that’s your goal, Tesla might not be the best partner.

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[MailGuy]

Waymo's are quite good actually. Once you get past the shock of the initial ride, you become a believer. Our preferred way to get to/from PHX Sky Harbor.

 

[dan_meh]

Also Toyota:
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a64644557/toyota-waymo-autonomous-vehicle-partnership/

Waymo is winning at the moment. If I were a Tesla investor, I’d start to hedge. Licenses scale quickly and no one gets fired for going with IBM.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Lidar + cameras + radar will always beat just cameras. A wider diversity of inputs is always better.

I still won't pay for the technology to be in my vehicles.

 

[ChehRob]

Not just my view, but also many academics in the field, FSD will best be achieved with smart cars AND smart roads (the second will be cheap and easy). The road will tell you what is ahead for the next 2-5 minutes, and transmit it to vehicles.

 

[E90alex]

Lidar + cameras + radar will always beat just cameras. A wider diversity of inputs is always better.

I still won't pay for the technology to be in my vehicles.

100%. I had the free FSD trial on my Tesla last year and a light drizzle would give warning like “FSD degraded due to severe weather”. Or driving towards the sun at sunset would give “Cameras blocked or blinded. FSD limited.” Or even just morning dew on the cameras. Or a pitch black road with no lights.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

100%. I had the free FSD trial on my Tesla last year and a light drizzle would give warning like “FSD degraded due to severe weather”. Or driving towards the sun at sunset would give “Cameras blocked or blinded. FSD limited.” Or even just morning dew on the cameras. Or a pitch black road with no lights.

And the stereo algorithms are only good if they have excellent data and are thorough, both things that are difficult to accomplish in fast-moving vehicles. I do this work for a living: I would never trust a human life to only stereo in visible light.

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