Ford Demonstrates Self-Driving Capabilities Of Fusion

Even as we embrace the new direction automobile industry is moving towards, electric vehicle (EV) development has switched to top gear.

Ford Motor Co. is working aggressively to be one of the top contenders in the EV market. At the University of Michigan's Mcity proving grounds for autonomous cars, Ford engineers rolled out a fleet of self-driving Fusions; the cars successfully piloted themselves around the faux city landscape with a top speed around 25 mph (40km/h).

The Ford self-driving cars correctly read stop lights, negotiated turns, identified pedestrians (real ones and dummies), and cyclists on the road.

However, the road ahead for autonomous cars with level 4 is still a long way to go before it can self-driving cars can hit the streets. One of the challenges is the high-definition mapping of the country's roads, which can overcome some of the country's infrastructure issues, and this is not nearly complete enough.

Ford is striving to have Level 4 self-driving cars commercially available by 2021. The vehicle would drive itself with no human intervention in a pre-mapped area, such as a section of a city. This is possible only when the high-definition mapping of country's roads are complete.

DriveSpark Thinks!

Ford's demonstration of its self-driving cars is significant as the company is known for mass market models and if they can achieve Leve 4 autonomy, then we will soon witness Ford self-driving cars on the streets.