DETROIT -- Making sure vehicles are "built Ford tough" has become too tough on the test drivers whose job involves putting thousands of bone-jarring, teeth-rattling, mind-numbing miles on new models.
So Ford Motor Co. has started giving some of that work to replacements who don't need to take breaks and will never file a workers' compensation claim: robots.
Ford says it is the first automaker to make autonomous vehicles a major part of its durability testing. It has barred human drivers from three routes at its Michigan Proving Ground north of Detroit and plans to use the technology significantly more there and at its other test tracks.
About three-quarters of Ford's durability testing can now be done without human drivers, using either robots or dynamometers, said Dave Payne, the company's manager of vehicle development operations.
"I don't know that we'll ever completely eliminate drivers out here, but certainly on the tough, monotonous routes we can get them out of there," Payne said. "They were all for it."
Ford has not reduced its staff of 30 full-time and 30 part-time drivers at the Michigan Proving Ground in favor of robots and has no plans to do so, but it has changed the way some employees are used.
With robots, Payne said Ford can get about 11.5 hours of testing in a 12-hour period. Humans work eight-hour shifts, but meals and other downtime turn that into about five hours of testing.
As a result, he said it takes only about three months to subject cars and trucks to 10 years' worth of abuse, generally the minimum length of time automakers want to replicate in durability testing.
Equipment for each vehicle, including actuators that push the pedals and an attachment that turns the steering wheel, costs Ford less than $100,000, Payne said.
That compares with about $150,000 worth of electronics that Google has said is on its self-driving Toyota Prius cars. The project is unrelated to work being done by Ford -- along with Google and many other automakers -- toward developing vehicles that can drive themselves on public roads, company officials said.
By speeding up testing cycles and reducing the amount of human labor needed, Payne expects the robots to pay for themselves in less than a year.
Ford began working on the project about three years ago, informally assembling a team of eight engineers with no additional budget, and started using the robots for testing in late 2012.
