Intelligent Shuttle services that learn

Ford and MIT creating intelligent shuttle services that learn.

Ford Motor Company has joined with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), to create small electric shuttles equipped with cameras and a LiDAR system, used in most current autonomous cars.

The project will improve certain public transportation services, such as ride-hailing and point-to-point shuttles services.

The vehicles use LiDAR sensors and cameras to measure pedestrian flow, which ultimately helps predict demand for the shuttles. This, in turn, helps researchers and drivers route shuttles toward areas with the highest demand to better accommodate riders.

Ken Washington, vice president of Research and Advanced Engineering at Ford, said:

“The onboard sensors and cameras gather pedestrian data to estimate the flow of foot traffic. This helps us develop efficient algorithms that bring together relevant data. It improves mobility-on-demand services, and aids ongoing pedestrian detection and mapping efforts for autonomous vehicle research.”