Ford's New Multi-Million Dollar DiM250 Dynamic Driving Simulator: Helping to Develop Better Vehicles

Ford, with this multi-million dollar simulator, plans to test and drive new vehicles virtually. Developing new vehicles has become quicker and less expensive.

Ford, a renowned brand in the automobile sector, a company that for generations has inspired other automakers to innovate, yet again has introduced to the world a multimillion-dollar sophisticated driving dynamic simulator in Dearborn. It's not new to create, test, and refine new cars in the virtual world, but Ford plans to get the cars on the road more quickly and hence this amazing simulator. You can calculate the importance of this simulator by the fact that the Ford Mustang Mach-E electric SUV, the Ford Maverick midsize pickup, and the Ford F-150 Lightning full-size electric pickup truck were all developed with the aid of Ford's expanding family of simulators.

Ford's new DiM250 Dynamic Driving Simulator has been in use full-time with eight to ten individuals inside most weeks since it was put into service in February. However, those working on all-wheel drive, stability control, and electrical systems will progressively reserve time in the new simulator. The principal users are the vehicle dynamics and driver-assistance tech teams.

There is now only one buck, which is simply the interior of a Ford Explorer prototype without the grille, wheels, or back half of the car, providing a cozy and roomy cabin to go for a spin. It is mounted atop a device that resembles an upside-down air hockey table; the buck glides around a metal table and has nine actuators that enable it nine degrees of freedom to tip and dip as a real automobile would. A 15-foot-tall circular screen encircles the device and the belted-in person in a 270-degree circle. The simulator moves side to side, up and down over cracks and uneven ground, and vibrates across washboard surfaces as instructions are fed in from the control room.

Ford's DiM250 Dynamic Driving Simulator: Details

Well, if you’ll try simulated riding in a Maverick midsize pickup on a three-lane highway, it will have slick lanes as well as certain Michigan-specific bumpy roads where the simulator, being as realistic as proposed, will bounce up and down and sideways, giving off the same sensations as the state's famously potholed highways.

Then comes the F-150 Lightning which is simulated to ride down the road, an exact replica of Ford’s test track in Dearbondown. Another simulation is a trip in a standard SUV that would take place on a road with many other vehicles, including buses, Transit Vans, and Police Cruiser.

There are currently roughly 20 distinct roads and surfaces programmed, and a menu can be pulled up to access digital reproductions of tracks all over the world. In order to make employees working on vehicles for the European market feel at home while working in the United States, that also includes European courses and roads. As needed, the software engineers build new drives. They have the ability to digitally edit 100 miles of the highway so that just the worst parts are included. A wider range of surfaces, including desert terrain that an F-150 Raptor racer would rip up, is planned.

A control center with banks of computers and screens, staffed by engineers who can alter the environment and keep an eye on the driver, is located behind the room with the simulator and huge screen. They physically make it rain. Or, they could produce fog. Or bathe you in the blaze of the bus's headlights as it approaches you from the rear and the sky gets gloomy. Snow can make a surface wet and slick. The test automobile just drives through the artificial object in the event of an accident, causing only embarrassment and jeers from other drivers.

Powertrain noises can be added in the control room. Road noise is the most audible sound in electric Lightning. It is possible to test loaded vehicles. The team can test with traffic without needing to send four other engineers out on the road by adding traffic or having someone in the control room operate a different vehicle that interacts with the driver in the simulator.

Ford's DiM250 Dynamic Driving Simulator: Is it a Video Game?

Despite the fact that the simulated drives resemble video games, Robert Rieveley, a technical expert in simulation and a key player in the development of ADAS, claims that everything is engineer-level. It doesn't take long to get used to the virtual surroundings, especially since the buttons for adaptive cruise control and lane assist are conveniently located in the cockpit of an actual car. Although steering inputs are a little tenser than in real life, lane changes and dodging buses that are about to cut you off are handled with the same reflexes and movements.

One aspect of reality that is lacking is a sense of speed; it is simple to find yourself driving faster than 90 mph without realizing it. Engineers predict that in the future, software-added graininess will be used to increase the sensation of speed. Additionally, it is intended to include headphones to block out the machine's whir so the driver can more clearly hear traffic noise. Engineers can test the countless what-if possibilities that arise during the construction of a vehicle using simulators because it would take too long to physically test them all.

Louis Jamail, group leader for the simulator and core methodologies, claims that a week's worth of simulation testing may be completed in place of a month's worth of actual testing. Building 10 variants of a vehicle only to find that nine of them are ineffective is a more cost-effective option, according to Jamail. And when engineers can test-drive consistent virtual prototypes in a simulator, they don't need to piece things together, which results in fewer Frankencars. "We save money with each one-off prototype we don't have to create."

It enables Ford to respond to customers more quickly and change course to follow trends or address client feedback from clinics. In contrast to building a prototype, transporting it to a test site, introducing other vehicles and drivers to simulate traffic, and then executing repetitive tests, engineers can begin testing and upgrading new vehicles with software and computer keystrokes. He claims that the millions invested on the simulator were much outweighed by the time and financial savings.

Ford's DiM250 Dynamic Driving Simulator: How Virtual Variants can Improve the Real Product?

It enables Ford to respond to customers more quickly and change course to follow trends or address client feedback from clinics. In contrast to building a prototype, transporting it to a test site, introducing other vehicles and drivers to simulate traffic, and then executing repetitive tests, engineers can begin testing and upgrading new vehicles with software and computer keystrokes. He claims that the millions invested in the simulator were much outweighed by the time and financial savings.

The latency time, or the delay between what you do and what you see, is what sets the VI-Grade simulator apart from the Ansible Motion simulators that were installed in 2016 at the Ford Performance Technical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The eyes, brain, and stomach are confused by this lapse in time. The more recent Dearborn simulator reacts faster and is less prone to make you queasy. As opposed to the Charlotte simulators, which are more concentrated on individual race cars and have engineers seated in high-performance vehicles, the Dearborn simulator will aid in the development of popular products.

However, Charlotte has been the name of various popular vehicles. One of the first significant programs was the Maverick, the first half of which, according to Jamail, was created in the Charlotte simulator. The Mach-personality E's was developed using the same machinery, making it less of a compliance car and more of a dynamic product deserving of Mustang badges. It was extremely helpful in bringing senior executives around to the vehicle's goal. Additionally, the F-150 Lightning's new independent rear suspension trailing arm as well as its trailering system were tested on the Performance Center simulators.

Ford still maintains its older, building-sized VIRTTEX cockpit simulator in Dearborn. It can only offer a smooth ride and is slower to react. Although it lacks the built-in motion of the new simulator, it still works well to address issues with noise, vibration, harshness, driver distraction, and driver-assist technology. However, it cannot be used to practice driving dynamics over a wider range of bumps, cracks in the road, and other real-world challenges.

Ford intends to construct more units for the Dearborn simulator, which can be expanded to accommodate the full range of vehicles offered by the firm, from huge pickup trucks to compact SUVs and the Mustang coupe. In a few hours, according to engineers, they will be able to exchange money. The freshly installed simulator is still gaining strength and expanding its capabilities every day. The future holds a plethora of EVs for Ford and Lincoln, which will keep the new Dearborn simulator busy.

Well, we hope that one of these days Indian home-grown companies like Tata and Mahindra which currently, according to market trends are leading the auto market space in the domestic industry, try to create such tech-based simulators which eventually will help them cut costs in testing and manufacturing the test models.

That would really help these companies to build safer, technologically advanced, and innovative cars in the future. That being said, I guess it's a little early to go in that direction, but hope is all we Indians live on, right?