Skip to main content

Ford to begin testing autonomous cars on California’s roads

Fully autonomous Ford Fusion Hybrid sedans are taking to California streets next year, as Ford Research and Innovation Centre in Palo Alto continues growing. Ford is officially enrolled in the California Autonomous Vehicle Testing Program to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. The testing is a further advance of Ford’s ten-year autonomous vehicle development program and a key element of Ford Smart Mobility, the plan to take the company to the next level in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicle
December 16, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Fully autonomous 278 Ford Fusion Hybrid sedans are taking to California streets next year, as Ford Research and Innovation Centre in Palo Alto continues growing.

Ford is officially enrolled in the California Autonomous Vehicle Testing Program to test autonomous vehicles on public roads. The testing is a further advance of Ford’s ten-year autonomous vehicle development program and a key element of Ford Smart Mobility, the plan to take the company to the next level in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience, and data and analytics.

Ford has significantly expanded its Silicon Valley facility and over the past year has conducted research on autonomous vehicle virtual test drive, allowing virtual interaction between an autonomous car and pedestrians, replicating real-world situations to better understand and develop responses to some of the unexpected things that can happen on the road.

Research has also included: sensor fusion, where sensors on autonomous vehicles detect and track objects in the vehicle’s view, fusing information together to provide a 360-degree view of the car’s surroundings – including street signs, other vehicles, even pedestrians; camera-based pedestrian detection, using camera sensors to serve as the eyes of a vehicle, allowing the car to ‘see’ and sense pedestrians; and data-driven health care - using data collection from Ranger pickups and motorcycles outfitted with OpenXC technology, Ford is working with Riders for Health to collect GPS data and mapping coordinates to make health care, vaccines and medication delivery to people throughout rural Africa more efficient and accessible.

“Our Palo Alto team has grown significantly this year, using research and innovation to explore and develop future mobility solutions,” said Mark Fields, Ford president and CEO.

“Having a strong presence in Silicon Valley allows us to further accelerate our research on a wide range of technologies, and apply our insights to create real-world mobility solutions,” said Ken Washington, Ford vice president, Research and Advanced Engineering.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Bosch brings real-time safety to life
    September 19, 2022
    Visitors will have an opportunity to see how Bosch’s video-as-a-sensor technology enables real-time safety solutions for ITS.
  • Prism AI is a matter of perception for Teledyne Flir
    March 10, 2023
    New release's compact AI model allows simplified deployment on embedded systems
  • More than half of UK’s new cars sold with autonomous safety tech
    April 4, 2016
    Self driving cars may seem years away, but more than 1.5 million UK motorists a year now leave showrooms in cars featuring self-activating safety systems, according to analysis revealed by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

    Data from SMMT and JATO Dynamics shows that more than half of new cars registered in 2015 were fitted with safety-enhancing collision warning systems, with other technologies such as adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking and blind spot monitoring also surging in popularity.
  • How can US transportation be ‘re-envisioned’?
    October 17, 2019
    In her address to this year’s ITS America Annual Meeting, congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, chair of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, called for a ‘re-envisioning’ of transportation. Her speech is below – and ITS International asks a number of US experts what they would like to see ‘re-envisioned’…

    I would like to welcome  ITS America to the nation’s capital.