Ford Motor Company is the latest automaker to receive approval for testing driverless cars on California’s public roads. The company has announced in a press release that it has obtained an autonomous vehicle testing permit from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, expanding the list of participants in the Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program to a total of 11 entities.
This list includes several other automakers, as well as tech companies and automotive suppliers. In addition to Ford, companies that are approved to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in California include: Volkswagen Group of America, Mercedes Benz, Google, Delphi Automotive, Tesla Motors, Bosch, Nissan, Cruise Automation, BMW, and Honda.
“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. “We’re attracting top talent from around the world to join our team in Silicon Valley, including employees from local technology companies and universities who want to make people’s lives better by changing the way the world moves.”
Autonomous Version of Fusion Hybrid
Ford said that it has decided to use a Fusion Hybrid to test its autonomous driving technology. The first stage of Ford’s project, which will launch in January, will involve one Fusion Hybrid mapping routes using its 360-degree camera and sensors. A couple of months later, the company will deploy a fleet of autonomous Fusion Hybrids, which will be able to operate completely independently.
The vehicles will be tested on streets in Silicon Valley and San Francisco, where Google and a few other companies already operate their autonomous car prototypes.
Partnership with Google
As Yahoo Autos reports, Ford has partnered up with tech giant Google, as part of both companies’ efforts for accelerating self-driving car development. The report states that the collaboration will be officially announced at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show.
This partnership will be very beneficial for both companies. With it, Ford will be able to advance its autonomous driving software much faster, given Google’s experience in this area. Google, for its part, probably sees Ford as a company that could manufacture self-driving cars using the search-engine giant’s autonomous driving technology.
Google has repeatedly said that it does not intend to build driverless cars itself, since it doesn’t have any experience in manufacturing vehicles, which is pretty different from developing software, the area that it specializes in.
Planning Tests in Michigan, As Well
The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker will also test driverless Fusion Hybrid vehicles at Mcity – the simulated urban environment in the company’s home state. Mcity is a 32-acre fake town created at the University of Michigan, which includes traffic signs and signals, bike lanes, crosswalks, and street lights, among other things. It allows those developing autonomous driving technology to test their driverless vehicles in various real-world traffic scenarios, but in a protected environment where they won’t jeopardize the safety of pedestrians or other road users.
By enrolling in the California Autonomous Vehicle Testing Program, Ford becomes a strong contender in the race to launch the first driverless car, which is the main focus of all key players in the automotive world.