Ford will provide two prototype cars with vehicle-to-vehicle communication capability to help test a public transport system and also contribute to the development of fully autonomous vehicles.

The carmaker already offers a range of semi-autonomous vehicle features such as Lane Keeping Aid, Adaptive Cruise Control, Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection and Active Park Assist – with Traffic Jam Assist coming.

Now, a fleet of fully autonomous Ford Fusion Hybrid research vehicles is undergoing further development and ongoing road testing as Ford shifts its autonomous vehicle efforts from a research programme into a vehicle development programme. The vehicles use the same semi-autonomous technology available in Ford vehicles today, while adding four LiDAR sensors to generate a real-time 3D map of the surrounding environment.

The vehicle can sense objects around it using the LiDAR sensors, and uses advanced algorithms in concert with high fidelity maps to help it determine where vehicles and pedestrians are located and to predict where they might move.