Ford is undergoing tests with its LiDAR (aka laser radar) sensors for a while now, and it looks like the American car manufacturer is working with MIT to further develop the system.

After giving us some insights about their self-driving Fusion Hybrids during winter conditions, and night time, Ford is now collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers on a new, innovative mobility project.

The program will measure pedestrian flow and how pedestrians move in urban areas in order to improve certain public transportation services, while introducing a fleet of on-demand electric vehicles shuttles that operate on both city roads and MIT’s campus area.

In other words, the company will use LiDAR sensors and inexpensive cameras to route electric shuttles and navigate through densely crowded pedestrian areas. This will help the he researchers anticipate where the most demand for the shuttles will be at any given moment, and the shuttles to be pre-positioned and routed as efficiently as possible.

“The onboard sensors and cameras gather pedestrian data to estimate the flow of foot traffic. This helps us develop efficient algorithms that bring together relevant data. It improves mobility-on-demand services, and aids ongoing pedestrian detection and mapping efforts for autonomous vehicle research”, said Ken Washington, vice president of Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford.

Ford and MIT researchers plan to introduce the service to a group of students and faculty beginning in September. The group will use a mobile app to hail one of three electric urban vehicles to their location and request to be dropped off at another destination on campus.

The vehicles were constructed so that they’re able to navigate on the campus’s sidewalks while still leaving plenty of room for pedestrians.

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