Ford has announced a new self-driving vehicle research programme designed to help businesses in Europe understand how autonomous vehicles can benefit their operations.
UK delivery company, Hermes, is the first business to partner with Ford on the programme. Using a customised Ford commercial vehicle, the research aims to better understand how other road users would interact with an apparently driverless delivery van.
The specially adapted Ford Transit features sensors that mimic the look of an actual self-driving vehicle plus a ‘Human Car Seat’ in control of the vehicle – to enable an experienced, hidden driver to drive while giving the impression to others around that there is no one at the wheel.
“As we plan to bring autonomous vehicles to the roads, it is important that we focus not only on enabling the technology, but on enabling our customers’ businesses,” said Richard Balch, Director, Autonomous Vehicles and Mobility, Ford of Europe. “Clearly, there is no better way to identify how they may need to adapt than to experience those processes in real life.”
The two-week research project with Hermes builds on the success of Ford’s “last mile delivery” trials in London, in which a team of pedestrian couriers collected parcels from a delivery van and fulfilled the last leg of the delivery by foot.
The research vehicles will enable Hermes and other businesses to begin designing how their teams could work alongside driverless vehicles.
