Ford tripling the size of its self-driving auto fleet

To kick things off, Ford revealed it plans to triple its existing autonomous fleet with the addition of 20 Ford Fusion Hybrid autonomous vehicles. Raj Nair, Ford executive vice president, Global Product Development, and chief technical officer said, “Using the most advanced technology and expanding our test fleet are clear signs of our commitment to make autonomous vehicles available for millions of people”.

The video below provides an insight into Ford’s work on autonomous driving.

At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Ford announced a key part of its autonomous vehicle strategy for 2016: Velodyne’s new LiDAR sensor, the Solid-State Hybrid Ultra PUCK Auto.

The company’s autonomous vehicle fleet will soon begin real world testing on Californian roads. It says the fully autonomous vehicle fleet of around 30 vehicles will be the largest of any carmaker.

To help its cause, Ford is integrating the all-new Velodyne Ultra Puck auto sensor into its Fusion hybrid/autonomous vehicles to help out with 3D mapping and precision during its testing. The Ultra Puck will accelerate the development and validation of Ford’s “virtual driver” software which serves as the decision-making brain that directs vehicle systems.

Ford said two of these sensors could replace four current LiDAR sensors.

Lidar, which emits pulses of light instead of the radio waves used by radar, has become a critical component in the battery of sensors that allow self-driving cars to see their surroundings. The newest vehicles are on Ford’s third-generation autonomous vehicle development platform, built using Fusion Hybrid sedans, similar to the second-generation platform.

Ford, though, did reveal the third generation LIDAR technology it is now using on its self-driving cars.

At today’s press conference, the reported tie-up was not explicitly denied, but Ford CEO Mark Fields fired off a long list of corporate collaborators the company is working with-and neither Google nor Alphabet were on it. Meanwhile, “transportation services”, like those mentioned above, have the potential to generate trillions more (and in some cases are already) and Ford wants to get in on that.