Ford is on a mission to deliver a fleet of fully-autonomous ride-sharing vehicles to the market by the year 2021. The next step in that process will happen when Ford presents their next-generation Fusion Hybrid autonomous development vehiclefor the first time at CES and the North American International Auto Show in January.
The new vehicle will use the current autonomous vehicle’s platform, but features increased processing power and additional computer hardware. The sensor technology has been adjusted to allow for improved fit and placement, enabling the more compact technology to better detect what is around the vehicle while also looking more natural and elegant. New LiDAR sensors feature a more targeted field of vision, allowing the car to use two sensors to gather the same amount of data that the previous generation needed four to accumulate.
Autonomous vehicles need two major elements in their creation – a platform (which is an upgraded version of the vehicle itself) and a virtual driver system. Each element is upgraded in the new car, resulting in a significant improvement in sensing and computing power.
What, one might reasonably ask, is a virtual driver system? Put simply, it consists of the elements that provide the vehicle with the capability of performing the same tasks as a human driver would. The virtual driver system in the new Fusion Hybrid includes sensors, algorithms, extremely detailed 3D maps, machine learning and computer vision and the computational power needed to make it all work.Right now, there are 10 Ford Fusion hybrids that are equipped with the first-generation autonomous technology; when the second-generation vehicle is introduced, the company will be tripling the size of the fleet .
Contact Lewis Ford to learn more about Ford Motor Company’s goal to deliver a fully-autonomous autonomous ride-sharing fleet by 2021.