Ford executive says self-driving cars will only have a 4 year life span. Thoughts?

Quite the marketing pitch.
Typical Ford people already know this well though.
Why are they making cars worse instead of better?
It's not very environmentally friendly.
Caveat: 4 year life span for fleet vehicles- but still seems like a super short life span for a new vehicle

They should just make the darn things and let us decide how long to drive them for. And if they can't make a decent one that lasts then we'll buy from someone else. Enough of this planned obsolescence already. Manufacturers need to stick to manufacturing instead of telling us what to do and how to live our lives that most benefits them.

He's basing it on an assumption that they are shared cars in extreme use like taxis.
Typical New York City taxis log 70,000 miles a year.

Perhaps that's a good sign not to buy a Ford.

But, he could also be talking about cars used as commercial taxicabs.

Technology in that sector will probably evolve a lot at first, requiring updated vehicles more often.

Not to worry; I drive mountain roads and will NEVER own a self driving car.

Alot of fords now aren't worth repairing after 4 years and 200k km so what's the difference?

FLEET vehicles typically get a lot of use in a fairly short time. While your average family sedan may get 10,000 to 15,000 miles per year a fleet vehicle will get more than twice that amount, and fleet vehicles are typically replaced before the manufacturer's warranty runs out. It's not that the car is worn out, but the fleet manager saves money on maintenance by trading off older cars for new ones that have a fresh warranty.

First of all, in a fleet vehicle, that is the period of time a company will most likely amortize the vehicle over for tax purposes because that's where 80 percent of the depreciation takes place. Second, that's about the time that maintenance costs begin to rise so most companies can be expected to replace them when they become too costly to maintain compared to a new vehicle since the warranty will have expired or almost expired. The third major factor is that technology advances will make most of them obsolete within that time frame

Self-driving cars will have to be absolutely reliable, or they will become unguided missiles. The executive is admitting he does not have confidence in the reliability of his product after four years.
Other manufactures will have other ideas.

I doubt that a Ford executive said such a thing, because "self-driving" cars are not currently being manufactured by Ford or any other auto maker. There are no "self-driving " cars on the road, and there won't be any for MANY more years. It's going to take YEARS to work out all the bugs and make them safe to drive.