Making autonomous drive into reality takes car manufacturers to great lengths. This time, we are looking at an awesome autonomous drive set crafted to take on the night. And we are not talking about a night in the city, but a really dark night in the middle of nowhere. The questions are straightforward – will the Ford Fusion actually see what is next to it with all of the sensors working in the dark. Will the Lidar system sense all it needs to sense not to kill anyone and will it be sophisticated enough to make autonomous cars fully usable and adjustable for all road uses.
As part of the Project Nightonomy, Ford took an all rigged up Ford Fusion and let it loose on the Ford Arizona proving grounds to test all there could be with regards to autonomous drive. In short, the Fusion is the best testing point as it is sold basically in the same shape in the entire world.
As ever, the work starts just there. Now, Ford has to develop the system, put it into markets, sell it to a number of people and show it works. They are doing this by selling the Mustang GT with a 5-liter V8 for seriously small money. That is why the Germans bought more American Sports Cars than any other sportscar from their country in the past month.
