This strange-looking Ford Fusion is a research vehicle used for the development of future self-driving cars. Made in collaboration with the University of Michigan and State Farm, the vehicle benefits from more than a decade of Ford automated driving research.

The Ford Fusion Hybrid automated research vehicle will be used to test current and future sensing systems and driver-assist technologies. Together with its supplier partners, Ford aims to advance development of new technologies so they can be applied to its next generation of vehicles.

The Fusion Hybrid research vehicle uses the same technology found in Ford vehicles on sale today, except for the four scanning infrared light sensors on the roof. The system is called LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and can scan the road at 2.5 million times per second.

LiDAR uses light in the same way a bat or a dolphin uses sound waves and can bounce infrared light off everything within 200 feet (61 meters) to generate a real-time 3D map of the surrounding environment.

Ford says the sensors can track anything dense enough to redirect light – whether stationary objects, or moving objects such as vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists. Furthermore, the sensors can even sense the difference between a paper bag and a small animal at nearly a football field away.

This is obviously useful when a car has to drive on its own. Ford believes than in the long-term (after 2025), vehicles will have fully autonomous navigation and parking and will communicate with each other and the world around them.

By Dan Mihalascu

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