Ford engineers falling asleep at the wheel – level 3 autonomy ditched

Ford has denied reports quoting the company’s executive vice president of product development and chief technical officer, Raj Nair, as saying that its engineers were falling asleep while testing autonomous vehicles, although it has confirmed that it will not offer SAE Level 3 vehicles. “These are trained engineers who are there to observe what’s happening,” Nair told Bloomberg. “But it’s hu
February 21, 2017 Read time: 1 min
278 Ford has denied reports quoting the company’s executive vice president of product development and chief technical officer, Raj Nair, as saying that its engineers were falling asleep while testing autonomous vehicles, although it has confirmed that it will not offer SAE Level 3 vehicles. In a statement it said the initial reports were inaccurate and sought to clarify its decision not to offer Level 3 vehicles.

The statement said: “We believe that high levels of automation without full autonomy capability could provide a false sense of security, and that this presents a challenge for the driver to regain full awareness and control of the vehicle if a situation arises where the technology cannot function.  That is why we’re currently pursuing SAE Level 4 autonomous capability that will take the driver completely out of the driving process in defined areas.”
Location Based Systems

Related Content

  • July 2, 2015
    ZF TRW demonstrates semi-automated highway driving assist system
    ZF TRW has demonstrated its semi-automated driving capabilities at a test track event in Berlin, Germany. The vehicle has a 'Highway Driving Assist feature which can enable automatic steering, braking and acceleration for highway speeds above 40 kph. The demonstration vehicle integrates ZF TRW's AC1000 radar and S-Cam 3 video camera sensor together with its electrically powered steering belt drive (EPS BD) and electronic stability control EBC 460 – the combination of adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lan
    Read More
  • July 17, 2012
    ITS technology reduces congestion, improves workzone safety
    As the road-building season gets under way in the US, the Federal Highway Administration has just published a White Paper which deals with the use of ITS technology in work zones. On 30 April 2009, the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published a White Paper which was prepared by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT) to inform public agencies about the use of ITS to manage construction work zones. This is a particularly relevant topic given the large number of construction projects that are ex
    Read More
  • February 1, 2012
    Intersection management, cooperative infrastructures - what next?
    What do recent vehicle recalls mean for future cooperative infrastructures? Anthony Smith takes a look. As ITS industry stakeholders converge on Amsterdam for the 2010 Cooperative Mobility Showcase, an unprecedentedly wide range of technologies will be on display demonstrating what might be achievable in the future from innovations based on Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) communications.
    Read More
  • April 12, 2022
    Bosch buys AV specialist Five
    Testing platform gives engineers programs they need to create automated driving software
    Read More

Highlighted Content