Ford and Virginia Tech develop solutions for self driving cars to communicate with pedestrians

Study simulates a self-driving vehicle using a seat suit to conceal the human driver; this enables researchers to explore pedestrian reactions to the vehicle’s external lighting signals used to indicate whether it is self-driving, yielding or about to accelerate from a stop.

Ford and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute are testing a Ford-designed lighting method for self-driving vehicles to signal their intent to pedestrians, human drivers and bicyclists in an effort to create a standard visual language everyone can easily process and understand
 
Developing a way for self-driving vehicles to communicate their intent is essential since cues like hand waves or head nods between human drivers and pedestrians will not necessarily factor in to autonomous driving scenarios.

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Ford and Domino's test pizza delivery via self-driving cars

Some lucky pizza lovers in Michigan are getting Domino's Pizza delivered by Ford self-driving cars.

Over the next several weeks of testing, randomly-selected Domino’s customers in Ann Arbor, Michigan will have the opportunity to receive their pizza delivery from a Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle (which will be manually-driven by a Ford safety engineer and staffed with researchers).

With a plan to begin production of autonomous vehicles in 2021, Ford is taking steps to increase their understanding of how self-driving vehicles can support the movement of people and goods. Researchers from both companies will investigate customer reactions to interacting with a self-driving vehicle during the delivery process, especially those last 50 feet of the delivery experience. Hey Ford, Canadians love Pizza, too! How about it?

Ford facing class action lawsuit for Fiesta and Focus faulty dual-clutch transmission issues

Ford is facing international pressure for tranmission issues in its Focus and Fiesta models. "We've accumulated almost 3,000 registrations from people wo've experienced terrible problems with their vehicles," said lawyer Ted Charney, who is leading the $825-million Canadian class action

Canada isn't the only country facing the issue. The Australian government is starting action against the automaker for alleged "unconscionable and misleading" conduct. At the same time, Ford has agreed to a proposed class action settlement in the United States.

 The Ford PowerShift transmission is a dry dual-clutch transmission as opposed to the wet DCT found in vehicles from the Volkswagen Golf to the Bugatti Chiron. Dry DCTs can't handle high torque loads like a wet DCT, but they do produce better fuel economy since there isn't a pumping loss from moving the fluid around.

The lawsuit says that despite more than 20 recalls and technical service bulletins, Ford has failed to fix the problems with the PowerShift transmission. Look for more news as the lawsuit progresses.

Source: Autoblog

Ford's new project helps put babies to sleep by replicating physics of a moving car

For many new parents, there is only one guaranteed solution to putting their baby down at the end of the day – a night-time drive that soothes, calms and eventually helps little one nod off.

But that still means a disrupted night for mum or dad, who research shows can typically expect little more than five hours sleep a night while losing the equivalent of 44 days sleep in just the first year of their child’s life.* Help, however, could soon be at hand.

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