Ford Motor Co. has developed a new testing program at its Michigan Proving Grounds which puts robots in the driver's seat of its newest vehicles.
The new program allows a $100,000 robot to drive through a number of different driving conditions to test the vehicle's durability.
The program was developed over the course of a couple years and was introduced in October 2012. Ford conducted its first robotic test on the 2015 Super Duty according to a company press statement.
Ford believes that their program is the "future" of vehicle testing according to The Detroit News.
"We're going so fast and so tough now that on some of our roads, we can't even allow our drivers to go on them anymore," said Dave Payne, Ford's manager of vehicle development operations according to The Detroit News. "We're taking our tougher routes and changing them over to robotic testing."
The test has been conducted on eight other vehicles since then, including the Ford Fiesta and a number of different trucks.
By using a combination of humans and robots, Ford can test a vehicle's life cycle of 10 years and 150,000 miles in just three months according to Payne.
The company also said that instead of having eight drivers testing vehicles or driving a vehicle through a remote control, one person can monitor eight vehicles at the same time. Ford stated that even though a robot is driving the new model, the surveillance operator has complete control over the entire vehicle throughout the test.
If something goes wrong during testing, engineers have the ability to stop the vehicle and make the necessary adjustments before restarting the test. Sensors located inside the vehicle can also stop the test according to Payne.
The program was designed by Ford and the Utah-based Autonomous Solutions Inc.
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