Ford Self-Driving R&D Car Tells Small Animal From Paper Bag At 200 Ft.

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."

Comments

Yes but

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Can it tell if the small animal is *inside* the paperbag? I'm thinking of cats specifically. Cats and paperbags... cat lovers know what I'm talking about.

salt and de-icer

[hunter44102]

lets see what it can detect in the Northeast after 2 days of snow, salt and de-icer puts a 'film' of gunk covering 90% of the vehicle

Re:salt and de-icer

[MightyYar]

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.

Re:I'm waiting for autonomous taxis being everywhe

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Autonomous taxis already exist: you tell the driver to go the shortest or quickest way, and the driver almost always ignores you and chooses the least direct, more gridlocked route instead, all by himself

Also, you don't have to drive the taxi yourself.

Noise

[jklovanc]

I wonder about all these active technologies; lidar, radar, ultrasonic, etc. They work very well when there is only one vehicle in the area. What happens on a crowded freeway when there are a couple hundred vehicles an the area pumping out all those emissions? Wouldn't it be difficult to differentiate between returns due to your emitters and the emitters from other vehicles? Unless each emitter is working on a different frequency interference is a possibility. There is also the issue of sensors being sensitive enough to detect return but filtered enough not to be dazzled by the direct emissions from other vehicles close by.

Re:Noise

[AmiMoJo]

It generally isn't a problem because single readings are never used. They are always averaged over time and combined with other sensors. They also pulse their output and can detect interference and adjust their timing randomly to avoid it.

Think about how many devices manage to share unlicensed radio spectrum and how few cars will be that close together. The reason for having so many sensors is that if any one fails the others can make up for it.

Of course it will still fail from time to time, but less than a human.

Re:Noise

[swb]

My Volvo S80 has radar for the collision avoidance feature and the distance-sensing cruise control.

The only problem I've ever had with it has been in snowstorms where the radar panel gets covered with snow and ice -- the dash display will then show "radar blocked."

On the other hand, my Valentine 1 radar detector will false on other cars radar detectors and some automatic doors on commercial buildings.

About the only other problem I've had with the distance sensing cruise has been getting behind cars driving slightly slower than my set point and not noticing that I'm going a little slower than I want to drive. My car will basically follow the other car and match its speed transparently until it goes faster than my cruise set point.

Re:ONE independent demo, please

[somersault]

They don't stand to profit from anything right now, this is just news about a research project. If you are annoyed at the lack of product reviews for a product that doesn't even exist yet, maybe you should stop reading tech news sites.

What are they really saying?

[jklovanc]

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.

Given that the sensors can detect a difference here are some follow on questions that seem important.
1. Can it detect which one is the animal and which one is the bag? (they talk about difference not identification)
2. Can it tell if the small animal is alive or dead if it is not moving.
3. Can it tell if the animal is on a leash and not going to be an issue?
4. Can it detect if there is a barrier between the animal and the desired route of travel and the animal not being an issue?
5. Can it tell the difference between a turtle and a rabbit? Turtles having much more restricted movement possibilities than a rabbit.
6. Will it remember that the small animal went into the bag. Out of sight out of mind.
7. Can it differentiate between an empty bag and a bag of cement? Driving over an empty bag is not a problem. Driving over a bag of cement is probably a problem.
Detecting the difference between a small animal and a paper bag is important but it is only the first step in in a very complex decision process to determine what to do with that information.

Re:What are they really saying?

[ustolemyname]

Bag: Should be avoided.
Baby: Should be avoided.

Bag: May involve gently changing direction, do not brake erratically, do not disturb flow of traffic.
Baby: May involve driving into the ditch, other traffic, making full use brakes, honking horn, etc.

You really think it doesn't matter?

Re:What are they really saying?

[Chrisq]

...The mathematician is the most correct in that the statement is based on exactly what he saw. Only one field and only one side of each sheep.

If he were a Scottish mathematician he would certainly have seen the rear end of the sheep too.

not just seen it!

Re:I'm waiting for autonomous taxis being everywhe

[PolygamousRanchKid]

I've ridden in a lot of taxis recently in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany and Greece. I would miss having a live driver to tell me all the gossip in the city. Taxi drivers are always the most informed folks in any city. They can tell you who the mayor is sleeping with and where he buys his drugs.

The NSA shouldn't pay employees to play online games. They should have them drive around in taxis and talk to the drivers. Taxi drivers would make the best intelligence network.

Re:I'm waiting for autonomous taxis being everywhe

[hawkinspeter]

Don't look at the CCTV cameras in Milton Keynes. You could get stoned.

Re:Moore's law

[ebno-10db]

It will be interesting to see how the end of Moore's law will affect this and similar projects.

Maybe programmers will learn the nearly lost art of writing efficient code.

Re:OK, It Works, But What's Next

[blackbeak]

The autonomous car deftly picks up the cat via robotic arm extension without even needing to slow down, reconfigures the route plan to stop by the nearest animal shelter, and automatically drops cat in the shelter's autonomous stray animal receptor.