Ford Self-Driving R&D Car Tells Small Animal From Paper Bag At 200 Ft. 207
cartechboy writes "Autonomous driving is every car manufacturer's immediate R&D project. In car-building terms, even if a new technology isn't due for 10 years — since that's just two full vehicle generations away-- it has to be developed now. So now it is for autonomous car research and testing, and this week Ford revealed a brand new Fusion Hybrid research vehicle built for autonomous R&D with some interesting tech capabilities. Technologies inside the new Fusion Hybrid research vehicle include LIDAR (a light-based range detection), which scans at 2.5 million times per second to create a 3D map of the surrounding environment at a radius of 200 feet. Ford says the research vehicle's sensors are sensitive enough to detect the difference between a small animal and a paper bag even at maximum range. More road-ready differentiations include observation and understanding of pedestrians, cyclists, and plain old stationary objects. Ford is working on this project in cooperation with the University of Michigan."
Re:salt and de-icer (Score:4, Informative)
Jeep? That's a pretty American brand. :) Most of the time a rear-wheel drive vehicle with some extra weight in the trunk and a set of snow tires was pretty decent in the snow. My dad is from Pittsburgh, and if he could get around snowy hills with that configuration, I'm pretty sure other folks could too.
Four wheel drive was complicated and expensive, and you ended up with an extra bulge and shifter on your floor. FWD was and is pretty crappy for handling in all of the rest of the year, with a few standout exceptions. FWD is cheaper and gives you a flat floorpan - that is the primary reason why it was adopted.