The US Army is preparing to test autonomous Ford F-250 pickup trucks in a training exercise, part of a broader effort to determine whether familiar commercial vehicles can perform dangerous battlefield jobs without soldiers.
Forterra, the defense-technology company supplying the trucks’ autonomous-driving system, says that the vehicles could eventually support missions such as route clearance and breaching, work that can require soldiers to spend hours searching mined roads and positioning explosives.
The Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps plans to experiment with four Forterra-equipped F-250s.
Ford’s popularity and readily available supply of parts…
