Ford Motor Company is one of the several automakers testing driverless car technology on public roads. The Dearborn-based manufacturer is making great progress in the development of its autonomous driving systems, in its efforts for winning the driverless vehicle race, which includes some of the world’s leading automakers, along with a few tech giants.
Now, Ford has taken autonomous car research to a new level, enabling its research vehicles to operate at night, which has been one of the greatest challenges for this technology.
Surveying Technology for Nighttime Driving
In a press release, Ford has announced that it has started testing self-driving cars in complete darkness, using LiDAR technology that allows the vehicles to navigate safely without relying on sunlight or its own headlights to see lane markings or various obstacles.
LiDAR, which stands for “light detection and ranging”, is a technology that employs laser light to measure distance and is primarily applied in geology, geodesy and archeology, for making detailed maps.
“Thanks to LiDAR, the test cars aren’t reliant on the sun shining, nor cameras detecting painted white lines on the asphalt,” says Jim McBride, Ford technical leader for autonomous vehicles. “In fact, LiDAR allows autonomous cars to drive just as well in the dark as they do in the light of day.”
Ford says that a Ford Fusion Hybrid self-driving vehicle equipped with LiDAR sensors mounted on its roof has performed a trial run at its Arizona Proving Ground in complete darkness, without using its headlights, which marks a very significant achievement for autonomous driving technology.
Using 3D Maps to Navigate Without Sunlight or Headlights
The LiDAR sensors are used to scan the landscape in which the car is supposed to travel, and create a high-resolution 3D digital map, which shows the topography and the geography the car is moving in, including signs, trees, and buildings, the company says.
Then, when operating in autonomous mode, the car uses the sensors to monitor the surroundings and identify its position on the map. Ford says that the LiDAR sensors emits 2.8 million laser pulses per second to scan the landscape around the car.
Ford researchers explain what riding in an autonomous vehicle at night looked like:
“Inside the car, I could feel it moving, but when I looked out the window, I only saw darkness,” describes Wayne Williams, a Ford research scientist and engineer. “As I rode in the back seat, I was following the car’s progression in real time using computer monitoring. Sure enough, it stayed precisely on track along those winding roads.”
This latest advancement in its autonomous driving technology research shows that Ford is one step ahead of the competition, and puts the Michigan automaker at the forefront of the driverless car race.