
Ford just posted a kind of amazing and funny video on YouTube, showing their Fusion Hybrid self-driving vehicle making the laps around the test track at Ford’s Arizona Proving Grounds.
The catch? This exercise was at night, with no headlights.
Lidar sensing enables the vehicle to drive autonomously without any ambient light, which is pretty neat.
Of course, part of the function of headlights is so that other cars can see you, so it’s not clear if Ford would ever intentionally turn off the headlights on its production vehicles.
But it’s a pretty cool proof-of-concept.