VIDEO: Ford shows off autonomous driving prowess

Ford has issued a video to prove that it is well on its way to developing a fully autonomous car for all real-world driving situations.

Using high-resolution 3D mapping and LiDAR can overcome the lack of visible line markings or gutters at the side of roads even in the snowy conditions in the video.

This claimed breakthrough is crucial for the new technology to be safe, says Ford, as the US car-maker claims that GPS isn’t sufficient to position a vehicle within its lane where accuracy within centimetres is essential. Currently, other systems being developed can only position a car accurately, using GPS, to a margin measured in metres.

LiDAR is a Ford developed system that emits a laser light that pulses back to create a 3D image - but the laser light cannot penetrate snow to find kerbing. In that case the Fusion’s (the US version of the Mondeo) 3D mapping comes into play.

Co-developed with the University of Michigan the interactive and the autonomous system effectively learns different drive routes and the location/position of road infrastructure in favourable conditions. The map data then serves to guide the car when those points of infrastructure are not visible – beneath a layer of snow.

In the future, as well as these systems, in markets that have deep snow, the autonomous car’s electronic stability control and traction control will interact with both the LiDAR, 3D mapping and autonomous driving aids to work out if it is safe to proceed, preventing the self-driving Fusion (or Mondeo) of the future from tackling deep snowy conditions.

Ford is already well behind its rivals in the race to develop self-driving vehicles, although recently it announced it had tripled its autonomous motoring test fleet to 30 vehicles for assessment in California, Arizona and Michigan. Each vehicle is equipped with LiDAR capable of operating at a range of up to 200 metres.