Ford is on a mission to deliver a fleet of fully-autonomous vehicles to the ride-sharing market by 2021. Keeping that goal in sight, Ford will present the 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 continue to operate on the current autonomous vehicle platform, but with increased processing power and additional computer hardware. The sensor technology has been adjusted for improved fit and placement, allowing the more compact technology to better detect what is around the vehicle while also looking more natural and elegant. New, sleeker LiDAR sensors present a more targeted field of vision, which allows the car to gather the same amount of data using just two sensors instead than the previous generation’s four.
There are two major elements that go into creating an autonomous vehicle – the platform (basically, an upgraded version of the vehicle itself) and the virtual driver system. The new vehicle offers improved version of both, resulting in a significant improvement in sensing and computing power.
What, you may be wondering, is a virtual driver system? In brief, 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.So far, there are 10 Ford Fusion hybrids equipped with the first-generation autonomous technology; the company will be tripling the size of the fleet when the second-generation vehicle is introduced.
Contact Levittown Ford to find out more about Ford’s plan to deliver a fully-autonomous autonomous ride-sharing fleet by 2021.