Ford just took a big step in advancing its autonomous vehicles.
The automaker reported Friday that it's the first in the car industry to test self-driving vehicles at Mcity, the University of Michigan's full-scale simulated real-world urban environment.
"Testing Ford's autonomous vehicle fleet at Mcity provides another challenging, yet safe, urban environment to repeatedly check and hone these new technologies," said Raj Nair, the Ford group's vice president of global product development, via a company press release. "This is an important step in making millions of people's lives better and improving their mobility."
Although Ford has been testing autonomous technologies for upwards of 10 years now, getting a chance to see how their self-driving vehicles perform in a simulated neighborhood like Mcity is key. Mcity is equipped with everything from street lights to crosswalks, lane delineators and even construction barries to amplify a replicated town.
Ford is using the mini city to test its Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle over surfaces such as concrete, asphalt, and brick and dirt via three- and four-lane roads, ramps, and through tunnels.
"The goal of Mcity is that we get a scaling factor. Every mile driven there can represent 10, 100 or 1,000 miles of on-road driving in terms of our ability to pack in the occurrences of difficult events," said Ryan Eustice, University of Michigan associate professor and principal investigator in Ford's research collaboration, via a press release statement.
Overall, the Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle includes driver-assist technology as well as front-facing cameras, radar and ultrasonic sensors, adding four LiDAR sensors for real-time 3D map simulation.
The self-driving vehicles are part of Ford Smart Mobility, the automaker's blueprint to deliver autonomous vehicles with next-level connectivity.
