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Ford plays weather man

Lauren Kate Rawlins
By Lauren Kate Rawlins, ITWeb digital and innovation contributor.
Johannesburg, 07 Dec 2016
Ford will open an environmental testing centre in Germany next year, to simulate harsh weather conditions.
Ford will open an environmental testing centre in Germany next year, to simulate harsh weather conditions.

Instead of taking cars to the elements to see how they fair, motor company Ford will recreate harsh and demanding weather conditions within a new Environmental Test Centre.

The facility will be able to simulate an altitude of 5 200 metres; weather like snow, glaring sunlight and rain; a temperature range of -40^0 C to +55^0 C; 95% humidity; and wind speeds of up to 250km/h.

The car manufacturer would previously have to take new vehicles to different corners of the world to do the same tests.

Up to nine cars can be tested simultaneously in the centre. Engineers will test for comfort, safety and operational capabilities, including electrical performance, braking, air-conditioning and pulling heavy loads.

The football-pitch-sized facility will cover an area of 5 500-square metres, and include two climate wind tunnels, a high-altitude lab, and four temperature-controlled test chambers, three of which will also facilitate humidity testing.

It will also facilitate testing of Ford's expanded line-up of performance cars and sports cars, which includes the Focus RS, Focus ST and Ford Mustang, in conditions of higher wind speed. It will be used to test front-wheel, rear?wheel and all-wheel drive vehicles.

The multimillion-euro centre will be built in Cologne, Germany, and be ready for use next year.

"With industry-first features, like the high altitude testing and the ability to simulate heavy snow, this new test facility offers a toolkit that will help us to continue to develop future best-in-class vehicles," says Joe Bakaj, product development VP at Ford Europe.

"This is a significant step forward that will enable Ford to efficiently simulate the most demanding environmental conditions around the globe under repeatable conditions."

This centre comes at a time when the company has said it hopes to have fully autonomous cars on the road by 2021. Self-driving cars will need to be tested rigorously as the vehicles will not have the same judgement as humans.

Earlier this year, a person died while riding in a Tesla car that was in autopilot mode. The car drove straight into a truck after the car's cameras were unable to tell the difference between glaring sunlight and the large white side panel of the truck.

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