Ford Motor Company is going full throttle to test their autonomous vehicles project under various circumstances and environments. In one such test, the automaker put their Fusion Hybrid autonomous research vehicle through an extreme test under the moonlight. The bespoke autonomous Fusion sedan navigated on lonely roads of Ford Arizona Proving Ground under pitch-black darkness, with the assistance of LiDAR sensors.
As a part of LiDAR sensor development, Ford Motor Company tested their Fusion Hybrid autonomous research vehicles in the dark hours of night, and demonstrated the capabilities of the machine to perform beyond the limits of human drivers. The sensor technology and 3D maps work in combination to allow vehicles to drive without headlights on. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data states that the passenger vehicle occupant fatality rate during dark hours to be about three times higher than the daytime rate.
Ford self-driving cars use high-resolution 3D maps – complete with information about the road, road markings, geography, topography and landmarks like signs, buildings, and trees to navigate in the dark. The vehicle uses LiDAR pulses to pinpoint itself on the map in real time. Additional data from radar gets fused with that of LiDAR to complete the full sensing capability of the autonomous vehicle. For the desert test, Ford engineers, equipped with night-vision goggles, monitored the Fusion from inside and outside. Night vision allowed them to see the LiDAR doing its job in the form of a grid of infrared laser beams projected around the vehicle as it drove past. LiDAR sensors shoot out 2.8 million laser pulses a second to precisely scan the surrounding environment.
This year, Ford will triple its autonomous vehicle test fleet – bringing the number to about 30 self-driving Fusion Hybrid sedans for testing on roads in California, Arizona and Michigan. These developments are key elements of Ford Smart Mobility, the plan to take Ford to the next level in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience, and data and analytics.
Speaking on the occasion, Jim McBride, Ford technical leader for autonomous vehicles expressed that due to the LiDAR sensors the test cars don’t rely on daylight or cameras that detect painted white lines on the asphalt. In fact, the LiDAR allows autonomous cars to drive just as well in the dark as they do in the light of day.
One of Ford’s research scientist and engineer, Wayne Williams, also shared his experience as he was inside the test vehicle during the test. He said that while inside the car, he could feel it moving, but when he looked out the window, he only saw darkness. As he rode in the back seat, he was following the car’s progression in real time using computer monitoring. Sure enough, it stayed precisely on track along those winding roads.
