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

  • Land Rover demonstrates remote-control Range Rover Sport
    June 18, 2015
    Jaguar Land Rover, part of the UK Autodrive consortium, has demonstrated a remote control Range Rover Sport research vehicle, showing how a driver could drive the vehicle from outside the car via their smartphone. The smartphone app includes control of steering, accelerator and brakes as well as changing from high and low range. This would allow the driver to walk alongside the car, at a maximum speed of 4mph, to manoeuvre their car out of challenging situations safely, or even to negotiate difficult off
  • Visible road markings: an essential for older drivers and intelligent vehicles
    March 20, 2015
    The RAINVISION project, co-financed by the European Commission, recently held its final meeting. Over the past three years, the project has researched the impact of road markings on driver behaviour under different night weather conditions (dry, wet and wet and rainy) and has assessed how different age groups and gender groups adapt their driving based on the above mentioned conditions. The results of the project were presented and in particular, the outcomes of three different trials conducted over the pro
  • Increased automation is already improving road safety
    April 20, 2017
    Richard Cuerden considers how many of the technologies developed as part of a move toward autonomous vehicles are already being deployed as ADAS improve road safety. The drive to create autonomous vehicles has caused a re-evaluation of what is needed to safely navigate today’s roads and the development of systems that can replace the driver in many scenarios. However, many manufacturers are not waiting for ‘tomorrow’ and are already incorporating these systems in their new cars as Advanced Driver Assistanc
  • AT&T, Ford, Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies to test C-V2X in U.S.
    November 3, 2017
    American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), Ford, Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies are teaming up with the intention of accelerating the development of connected cars by trailing Cellular-V2X (C-V2X) technologies in the U.S. These tests are aimed at showing automakers and road operators the anticipated cost-efficient benefits associated with embedded C-V2X in vehicles and synergies between the deployment of cellular base stations and roadside infrastructure. Initial testing is expected to begin later this year.