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Autonomous Driving: Ford Collaborates With MIT, Stanford

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Moving forward with autonomous driving research.

The Ford Motor Company is working with a pair of university partners as it commits to advancing its research on autonomous driving. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be handling scenario planning in an effort to forecast the actions of other vehicles and pedestrians. Stanford University researchers will help Ford learn how a vehicle might maneuver to permit its sensors to look around obstacles. Both projects are part of Fords Blueprint for Mobility initiative that looks beyond 2025 to see where autonomous driving and advanced technologies might impact transportation.

Autonomous Driving: Ford Fusion Hybrid

A team of Ford Fusion Hybrids outfitted with autonomous equipment.

Autonomous Driving Projects

Ford’s latest technology announcement follows and builds on its automated Ford Fusion Hybrid research vehicle that rolled out last month. Automated driving falls under Fords mobility blueprint, what will help the automaker determine the business models and partnerships it will need to reach its goals. The automaker anticipates that it will need to collaborate with many new partners across the public and private sectors, something it intends to begin immediately with the help of its academic partners.

Paul Mascarenas, chief technical officer and Vice President, Ford research and innovation said, “Working with university partners like MIT and Stanford enables us to address some of the longer-term challenges surrounding automated driving while exploring more near-term solutions for delivering an even safer and more efficient driving experience.”

The Ford Fusion Hybrid research vehicle is based on technologies the automaker uses today and makes available to its customers. It then added four LIght Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) sensors to produce a 3D map of the vehicles surroundings in actual time.

Autonomous Driving: Ford Fusion Hybrid

The University of Michigan and State Farm are also partnering with Ford.

MIT Partnership

Ford’s research with MIT will use advanced algorithms to determine where other vehicles and pedestrians might be in the future. It will build on existing LiDAR technology that is able to sense objects around the vehicle. The goal for Ford-MIT is to enhance the technology’s ability to map out a pathway that will safely avoid pedestrians, vehicles and other moving objects.

Stanford Partnership

Fords research with Stanford will examine how sensors might look around obstacles. The automaker builds on existing driver behavior such as when a large obstacle like a city bus blocks the drivers view. In such situations the driver might move around in the lane in a bid to get a clearer view. Working in similar fashion, Ford-Stanford are seeking ways for the sensors to mimic driver behavior and take evasive action as required. For instance, if the city bus ahead of the car suddenly braked, the autonomous vehicles sensors would scan the area to determine if it could quickly and safely make a lane change.

Autonomous Driving: LiDAR

Ford has tapped Velodyne for its LiDAR technology.


If it sounds as if the university researchers are attempting to inject some common sense into autonomous vehicle technology, youd be correct. Indeed, just as drivers have a sense for what is going around them while on the road and what actions to take, Ford and its research partners are seeking to attain similar intuitiveness with its autonomous vehicles.

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Photos courtesy of the Ford Motor Company.

MIT Names Audi, Toyota As Disruptive Companies

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The word disruptive suggests chaos or what challenges conventional wisdom to introduce something that is new. Technology Review, a publication founded by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1899, recently updated its annual 50 Disruptive Companies list, with both Toyota and Audi mentioned for 2013.

Autonomous Driving

Audi, founded in 1909 and based in Ingolstadt, Germany, made it to the MIT list for the first time. The Review recognized Audi for pushing autonomous cars closer to fruition with a laser-scanning road detector that fits in a vehicles front grille. Autonomous driving received significant mention in Audi CEO Scott Keoghs address to the media at this years Washington Auto Show, a story that was reported by Auto Trends earlier this month.

Said Wolfgang Dürheimer, Board Member Technical Development, AUDI AG, “Piloted driving is a logical step for Audi, based on the in-car assistance systems already in use.”

Hybrid Leadership

Toyota has also made news about autonomous driving, but the Review recognized it in a different area, one that should be familiar to everyone. Of Toyota MIT lauded it for, Expanding its dominance of the hybrid-car market with its new plug-in version of the Prius. Toyota, founded in 1937 and headquartered in Tokyo City, Japan, continues to expand and update the Prius line, now offering five models to choose from.

When approached by Auto Trends for a comment, John Hanson, national manager, environmental, safety and quality communications at Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. said, “Toyota is focused on developing for the future and strives to be the safest, highest-quality, most fuel-efficient and innovative car brand. Whether it’s alternative energy sources, interconnected traffic & safety systems, human assisting robots or new modes of personal transport, we’re taking steps to innovate. He added, Hybrid technologies are regarded as our core technology, and we have endeavored to promote the mass-market adoption of hybrid-vehicles. By 2015, 10 percent of our cars will be hybrids, or about 990,000 units, based on sales projections.”

Top Companies

Of the 50 companies mentioned, 31 were new to the list this year. Audi and Toyota alone represented the auto industry with some companies including General Electric supplying components that are used in todays new cars. Apple, Google, IBM, Xerox, Corning and Phillips were among the more recognized disruptors mentioned. Others included Square, Kymeta, Ambri, BGI and Leap Motion.

MIT was quick to point out that its list is not based on a quantitive assessment. Nor is it a ranking. Rather, it is the Reviews way of bringing attention to innovations that get commercialized or what these companies do to improve their positions in their respective markets. Some have brought forth a breakthrough product, while others are innovating with new breakthroughs yet to be realized.

Piloted Vehicles

For Audi, making it to the MIT list represents the third time this company has been recognized this year for its autonomous or what it calls its piloted driving technology. Just in January, Popular Science named Audis technology as a product of the future. Vox Medias, The Verge, also included Audi in its 2013 CES announcement for best automobile technology.

In January, the publication took a slap at Googles self-driving car when Chris Ziegler penned, Audi working on making self-driving cars look like normal cars. Audis piloted technology when it goes mainstream will be incorporated within the vehicle. Google, on the hand, slaps its equipment right on top of the vehicle. Guess which technology layout is an eyesore?

Hybrid Technology

Toyota has, of course, enjoyed its share of accolades for its innovative hybrid Prius line. Toyota sells more hybrid vehicles than the rest of the market combined and has placed its green technologies bets with hybrids not pure electric vehicles or with fuel cell vehicles. Toyota is still working on the two latter technologies, but it clearly wants to maintain its edge in hybrid technology even as competitors such as the Ford Motor Company continue to flex its own muscles.

Toyota Prius CThe Toyota Prius c, the smallest model in the Prius family, took first place honors when the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy announced its 15th annual greenest vehicle list. The little Prius is EPA-rated at 53 mpg around town and 46 mpg on the highway for a combined 50 mpg, and can had for less than $20,000.

Future Winners

What other automotive companies might be considered disruptive? To the extent that groundbreaking technologies are offered, look for the first company that delivers a production-ready fuel cell vehicle to the market to make that list. A solar-powered vehicle may someday also be recognized as might any new vehicle that effectively eliminates the risk of a crash.

Innovating is the key to technological advancement, what Technology Review has been tracking for well more than a century.

See Also Are Driverless Cars Really That Far-Fetched?