Ford uses robots for truck test drives

A robotic test driving system controls a Ford Transit van. The hardware is pictured here.A robotic test driving system controls a Ford Transit van. The hardware is pictured here.

Ford has begun using driverless technology to test the toughness of its trucks, our sister site, Equipment World, reported.

The automaker worked with Autonomous Solutions to develop the robotic test driving system, which is the first in the industry.

The system uses a robotic control module to steer the vehicle and control acceleration and braking, cameras and GPS tracking to keep the test trucks on a programmed path and onboard sensors to detect surroundings such as a person or animal.

The robotic system could allow Ford to create more rigorous test tracks for its trucks.

Check out the video below to see the robotic test driving system in action.

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