Ford’s autonomous car can drive at night without headlights

The majority of self-driving car tests occur in daylight with favorable weather conditions, but Ford wants to push things a little further. It has tested autonomous cars in snow, and it just sent a self-driving Fusion Hybrid down a desert road at night with no headlights.

Driving in pitch black at Ford Arizona Proving Ground marks the next step on the company’s journey to delivering fully autonomous vehicles to customers around the globe. It’s an important development in that it shows that even without cameras, which rely on light, Ford’s LiDAR – working with the car’s virtual driver software – is robust enough to steer flawlessly around winding roads.