Thursday, January 08, 2015

Ford Also Developing Self Driving Car


Ford today showcased the semi-autonomous vehicles it has on the road already and gave attendees a glimpse into fully autonomous vehicles now in development.

The carmaker also announced a series of experiments with drivers around the globe to test its vehicle-to-vehicle connectivity, autonomous cars and the use of big data collected from vehicles.

Semi-autonomous vehicle features available today from Ford include lane-keeping assist, adaptive cruise control, pre-collision assist with pedestrian detection and active park assist. Coming soon: traffic jam assist.

The company said a fully autonomous Ford Fusion Hybrid research vehicle is undergoing road testing now. The vehicle relies on the same semi-autonomous technology used in Ford vehicles today, while adding four LiDAR (light, radar) sensors to generate a real-time 3D map of the surrounding environment.

"We're already manufacturing and selling semi-autonomous vehicles that use software and sensors to steer into both parallel and perpendicular parking spaces, adjust speed based on traffic flow or apply the brakes in an emergency," Ford CEO Mark Fields said in a statement. "There will be a Ford autonomous vehicle in the future, and we take putting one on the road very seriously."

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