Emerging Technologies Blog

Ford announced Friday that it has begun testing its self-driving Fusion car in the newly built Mcity, a city specially constructed solely for the testing of autonomous cars. Ford says it is the first automaker to trial  a driverless car in the 32-acre Mcity built by the University of Michigan.


                    

Mcity was built by the University of Michigan in partnership with the federal governments and automakers,and opened in July 2015 with the goal to fast-track the development of self-driving technologies. The simulated city has almost everything you would normally see in a real-world urban environment such as roads built with asphalt, intersections, traffic signs,street lights, bike lanes, realistic neighborhoods etc.

Ford, which has been testing autonomous cars for a decade now, is trialling its Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research vehicle at the new testing facility situated very close to its Dearborn headquarters. The Ford Fusion Hybrid Research Vehicle will use the ultrasonic sensors, front-facing cameras, radar and LIDAR system the carmaker outfits it with to navigate different roads in the simulated city.

Like other self-driving cars currently undergoing public road testing in America and some European countries, the Ford self-driving fusion will also be put to the test at Mcity, in order to hone the technologies it is equipped with it.

"The goal of Mcity is that we get a scaling factor", said Ryan Eustice, University of MI associate professor and principal investigator in Ford's collaboration with the school.