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2014 Ford Mondeo testing autonomous driving technologies (video)

The Ford Fusion with its LIDAR ears allowing autonomous driving Car makers are starting to take self-driving, autonomous cars very seriously, and we’ve recently seen Mercedes testing their autonomous driving S-Class in Berlin, Volvo planning a big trial of 100 self-driving cars in Gothenberg and Tesla planning systems that will do 90 per cent of your driving within 3 years. Now it’s Ford’s turn. Ford has equipped a Fusion Hybrid (that’s the North American version of the new Ford Mondeo we still haven’t got in the UK) with its autonomous vehicle technology to conduct research in partnership with the University of Michigan and State Farm (a big group of insurance companies in the US). The test Fusion gets a system called LIDAR (light detection and range – the funny looking ears on the top of the Fusion in the picture above) which can scan the road ahead up to 2.5 million times a second and create a 3D map of the surroundings.

ESP could save 380 lives a year

By Ben Shacham Motor Industry 19 June 2007 12:24 The campaign to make electronic stability control (ESC) standard on all new cars by 2012 is gathering momentum - and it could save 380 lives a year, say ministers. The UK's Department for Transport today claimed that hundreds of lives could be saved every year if all new cars had stability control fitted - totalling 4000 lives across Europe. A campaign to raise awareness of the potential benefits of ESC was launched last month in Rome by European commissioners and FIA president Max Mosley.

Toyota uses cash offers in bid to get rolling

Coming off a sharp sales decline in December, Toyota Division is trying to lure buyers into showrooms with new cash offers for customers and dealers. Even the Prius is getting support, after having been excluded from the brand's lavish incentive program in the last quarter of 2008. Toyota put $750 in dealer cash on the hood of the hybrid car.