LiDAR Sensor Tech Makes Ford Fusion Autonomous Research Vehicles See in the Dark

Under the cover of night, Ford’s Fusion Hybrid autonomous research vehicle—without its headlights on—has recently navigated along desert roads, carrying out a task that would be dangerous for a human driver.

The American automaker considers driving in pitch black at Ford Arizona Proving Ground as the next step on its journey to offering fully autonomous vehicles to customers worldwide. It is a significant development, in that it demonstrates that even without light-dependent cameras, Ford’s LiDAR—working with the car’s virtual driver software—is strong enough to steer flawlessly around winding roads. It is ideal to have all three sensor modes—cameras, radar and LiDAR—but the latter can function independently on roads without stoplights.

According to NHTSA, the passenger vehicle occupant fatality rate during dark hours is around three times higher than the daytime rate.

In a statement, Jim McBride, Ford technical leader for autonomous vehicles, said that LiDAR makes test cars non-reliant on the sun shining, nor cameras detecting painted white lines on the asphalt. He added that LiDAR enables autonomous cars to drive just as well in the dark as they do in the light of day.

In order to navigate in the dark, Ford autonomous cars employ high-res 3D maps—complete with information about the road, geography, topography, road markings, and landmarks such as signs, trees and buildings. The vehicle utilizes LiDAR pulses to pinpoint itself on the map in real time. Extra data from the radar gets fused with that of LiDAR to complete the autonomous vehicle’s full sensing capability.

For the desert test, Ford engineers used night-vision goggles to closely monitor the Fusion from inside and outside the vehicle. Thanks to night vision, they were able to see the LiDAR doing its job in the form of a grid of infrared laser beams projected around the vehicle as it drove past. LiDAR sensors shoot out 2.8 million laser pulses a second to accurately scan the surrounding environment.

Wayne Williams, a Ford research scientist and engineer, recounted that inside the car, he could feel it moving, but when he looked out the window, he only saw darkness. “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.”

After over ten years of Ford autonomous vehicle research, the automaker is dedicated to attaining fully autonomous driving capability, which, as defined by SAE International Level 4, does not necessitate the driver to interfere and take control of the vehicle.

This year, Ford will reportedly triple its self-driving vehicle test fleet, bringing the number to around 30 autonomous Fusion Hybrid sedans for testing on roads in Michigan, Arizona and California. These developments are core elements of Ford Smart Mobility, the plan to take the automaker to the next level in mobility, connectivity, customer experience, autonomous vehicles, and data and analytics.