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How Ford Keeps Bugs Off Their Autonomous Cars’ Sensors

Most drivers don’t mind it that much when they see bugs splattered all across the windshield because it’s nothing a good wash can’t take care of. Not the same goes for the sensors and cameras strapped on an autonomous car, though.
Ford keeps sensors on autonomous cars clean by squishing washing fluid and air on them 7 photos
Photo: Ford
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No one at Ford is more aware of the dangers a little bug squashed against a sensor can pose than Venky Krishnan, Ford’s Autonomous Vehicle Systems Core supervisor. In a blog post on Medium, Krishnan sheds a little light into the kind of thought and the technology created specifically for the purpose of squashing bugs.

Each Ford autonomous car now tested on the roads of the U.S. has something called “the tiara,” which is the structure placed on the roof of the vehicle housing the cameras, the radar and the LiDAR sensors. A bug smashed against any one of them would render it less accurate, which is not the desired goal. Of course.

So Ford first thought of ways of keeping the bugs off the tiara and tested it by creating a “bug launcher,” which hurled critters at the systems. They fitted the tiara with slots through which air is funneled onto the cameras and sensors, making it (the tiara) the first line of defense. The “air curtain” protects the sensitive technology from bugs by keeping them away.

While effective, this method wasn’t entirely successful because some bugs were still able to get through the air curtain, Krishnan says. This is where the second line of defense comes in: special little nozzles that spray washing fluid, removing whatever is left of the poor bug that came into contact with a moving car. Or, as Krishnan calls it, “gunk.”

The nozzles are controlled by a software algorithm, which ensures that they are activated only when needed, so there is no waste of fluid. Once the camera or the sensor is clean, it is dried with help from the air curtain.

The technology is already in use on Ford’s third-generation autonomous test cars, which can be spotted in Detroit, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh and Miami-Dade County.

“As fun as some of this development may sound, these are not features that would simply be nice to have when self-driving vehicles are ready to be deployed; they are critical functions that vehicles must be able to carry out on their own in order for safe deployment to be possible,” Krishnan says.

“Just as we must equip self-driving vehicles with the brains to process what’s happening in their environment, we must also equip them with the tools to deal with that environment – no matter what kind of gunk it decides to throw at them,” Krishnan concludes.
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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