Ford CEO: Self-Driving Cars Some Time Off

(RTTNews) - Ford Motor Co.'s (F) new CEO Jim Hackett has taken a more cautious approach to the automaker's plans for rolling out autonomous vehicles.

Ford is currently undertaking a 100-day review of its operations and Hackett indicated at delays to the company's plans to launch a fully-autonomous vehicle by 2021.

"It will be a progressive thing, just like computing. If you think about a vehicle that can drive anywhere, anytime, in any circumstance, cold, rain - that's longer than 2021. And every manufacturer will tell you that," Hackett said in an interview with SF Gate.

In May, Ford replaced President and CEO Mark Fields with Jim Hackett, who had been serving as the chairman of Ford Mobility LLC. Fields had earlier said that Ford will launch fully autonomous SAE level-4 capable cars for ride-hailing services like Uber around 2021.

Hackett also outlined his vision for future mobility at Ford's "City of Tomorrow" symposium in San Francisco on Thursday. The event is dedicated to exploring challenges, opportunities and emerging solutions that will shape the future of our cities.

According to Hackett, autonomous vehicles may not replace human-driven cars outright. He also said he does not foresee a robot takeover with the advent of autonomous vehicles.

Rather, Hackett noted that a combination of new technologies and analog will be needed to create a better transportation environment.

Ford has invested in a number of technology companies, including ride-sharing startup Chariot, autonomous driving startup Argo AI and LiDar sensor-maker Velodyne, among others.

In February, Ford said it will invest $1 billion during the next five years in Argo AI to develop a virtual driver system for Ford's autonomous vehicles.