Researchers at the Ford Motor Company in Arizona recently demonstrated the Ford Focus’s ability to use “lidar sensor technology” and three-dimensional maps to drive in the dark. In other words, the technology made it possible for the vehicle to drive in darkness without benefit of headlights.
The developers say the new technology highlights the fact that even without the use of light-dependent camera technology, its lidar system and virtual driver software can successfully maneuver dark, winding roads without incident. Having access to all three sensors – camera, lidar and radar – is ideal, but this research shows that lidar can function independently on roads if necessary.
One of the many benefits of this technology is that it allows the vehicle to take over the task of driving in situations – nighttime, perilous roads – that might be dangerous for a driver to navigate on his or her own.
Navigating in the darkness means that self-driving vehicles have to utilize three dimensional maps that are equipped with road information including:
- Geography
- Topography
- Landmarks such as signs, buildings and trees
- Road markings
A vehicle equipped with lidar pulses in order to pinpoint itself on a map in real time. Additional data from the vehicle’s radar then is fused with lidar and completes a full sensing capability of the driverless car.
To perform the nighttime desert test, engineers from Ford wore night-vision goggles and monitored the vehicle from both the inside and the outside. The goggles let them see how the lidar performed in its grid of infrared laser beams that were projected around the vehicle. A lidar sensor shoots out close to three million laser pulses a second and this allowed for a precise scan of the vehicles’ environment.
The researcher that was inside the vehicle only saw the darkness of the night, but was able to follow the vehicle’s trajectory on his computer as he rode along. This technology has been tested by Ford for more than a decade on its quest toward a fully autonomous driving vehicle.
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