(Bloomberg) -- Ford Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer MarkFields said that an automaker probably will introduce aself-driving vehicle within half a decade, but it won’t be hiscompany, which is focusing on less expensive features that assistin driving.

“Fully autonomous vehicles are a real possibility,” Fields saidat a Jan. 5 dinner with analysts and journalists on the eve of theConsumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “Probably, in the next fiveyears, you’ll see somebody introduce autonomous vehicles.”

Automakers are racing to develop self-driving cars that safelytransport commuters in congested urban areas. At the sameconference, Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche unveiled theMercedes-Benz F 015, a concept car that can autonomously movepeople.

If Ford’s forecast comes true, consumers may someday be able tobuy a vehicle without a steering wheel or brake pedals that wouldoperate in auto-pilot mode, driving more efficiently and reducingtraffic jams. In the meantime, automakers are seeking a piece ofthe $11.3 billion in factory-installed technologies going into carsthis year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

The F 015 Mercedes concept car has four seats, including thedriver’s, that can face each other, rather than the road, Daimlersaid today in Las Vegas. Six screens allow passengers to monitorinformation about the vehicle and the outside world, usingtechnology that responds to eye movements and gestures.

‘Big Leap’

“We have a master plan in place to take the big leap requiredgetting from technically feasible to commercially viable,”Daimler’s Zetsche said yesterday in Las Vegas. “The F 015 Luxury inMotion demonstrates where this may take us.”

Instead of being the first to sell autonomous vehicles, Fordwants to “democratize” technology that assists drivers throughoutits model line, offering it at prices even economy- car buyers canafford, Fields said. That includes features that can automaticallypark a car, steer it back into its lane and brake to avoidcollisions.

“You can go into a dealership and get a Ford Focus that can parkitself right now,” Raj Nair, Ford’s product development chief, saidof the automaker’s compact car that starts at $16,810. “If you wantto go to the full extreme -- full autonomy -- literally a vehiclethat has no steering wheel and has no pedals, that’s a tremendoustechnical challenge, but one that we believe that in the next fiveyears will be possible.”

General Motors Co. said in September it will introducehands-free driving technology on a Cadillac in two years. GM CEOMary Barra said at the time that having a car drive for you is“true luxury.”

Crosstown Traffic

Self-driving cars will probably be found in densely populatedurban areas that have been thoroughly digitally mapped so that thevehicles’ sensors can read the road, other cars and theenvironment, Nair said. As more of the world’s population movesinto big cities, autonomous cars are aimed at reducing congestionbecause they could adjust for each other’s speed differences moreprecisely, flowing through streets like schools of fish.

“The technology’s capability of being better than any one of usas an individual driver is definitely on the horizon,” Nair said.“It’s not a matter of if, but when.”

First, though, government regulators around the world need tocome up with new rules of the road for vehicles that drivethemselves, Fields said. Ford is already speaking with regulatorsto help them prepare for driverless cars, he said.

“The level of robustness that society and regulatory agenciesare going to expect, that’s another story,” Nair said. “That’ssomething we need to work on.”

Megacity Mobility

A record 10 automakers are showing their wares at CES on anexhibit space the size of three football fields. In addition toself-driving cars, auto and tech companies are displayingdashboards covered in curved touch-screens, vehicles controlled bysmartwatches and entertainment systems operated with a wave of thehand.

Ford is trying to make a business out of broader forms ofmobility as it foresees a future where consumers buy fewer cars asthey migrate into “megacities” of more than 10 million people,Fields said today in a speech at CES. The automaker has 25 researchprojects around the world looking at alternate mobility such asride sharing, bike sharing and developing smartphone apps to findparking in congested urban centers.

“We’re doing a lot of experimentation,” Fields told reportersafter his speech. “We’re doing these experiments to learn, ‘Isthere a business model in there for us?’”

Copyright 2018 Bloomberg. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten,or redistributed.