A behind-the-scenes look at how Ford uses tech to test vehicles before they hit the road

The winter solstice is weeks away, but on a recent sunny October day at a Ford facility in Southeast Michigan, it was already here.

At least, it felt that way in a so-called “soak room” at the automaker’s Drivability Testing Facility, where temperatures plunge as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit. Here, engineers recreate winter conditions as part of extensive testing to validate that in-development vehicles are prepared for basically any scenario they might encounter in the real world.

Every vehicle model is tested not only to meet federal safety requirements, but so that manufacturers can catch issues before the vehicles go into mass production and thereby avoid costly fixes once they’re on the market. Tests touch on fuel efficiency, vehicle weight, heating and cooling systems, and much more.

Tech Brew got a behind-the-scenes look at some of Ford’s processes, which use continuously evolving technologies to make sure that vehicles are safe, durable, and perform well in a variety of conditions. These methods are adapting to meet some of the unique characteristics—and challenges—of electric vehicles.

“Historically, everything’s been combustion engines. That’s what this place was built for, and every other test facility,” Wind Tunnel Engineer Doug Olson told us. “Battery vehicles, they behave differently in the cold…So, we’ll develop different testing to see how much the battery may degrade parked overnight in the cold.”

“They’re pretty different vehicles,” he added, “so we end up doing a lot of different tests.”

Brr: Engineers “soak” the room at temperatures ranging from -40 to 131 degrees Fahrenheit. Our demonstration featured an electric Mustang Mach-E GT going through a snow test at -4 degrees Fahrenheit.

To replicate a typical freeze-thaw cycle, testers let snow build up on the vehicle, heat up the room so some of it melts, then drop the temperature down. They’re verifying that the doors open, the windshield wipers work, and the battery range doesn’t plummet, for example.

Next up is a wind tunnel that simulates rainy and snowy driving conditions, with wind speeds of up to 125 miles per hour. Engineers show us a test on a Bronco SUV that checks whether the engine’s air filter system works in the snow. A robot in the driver’s seat allows engineers to remotely control functions like acceleration, sparing engineers from having to repeatedly brave the extreme cold.

A separate area is home to the Rolling Road Wind Tunnel, which tests vehicles’ aerodynamics. The space features a gigantic fan that powers winds of up to 200 mph, and a treadmill-like system that simulates a moving road surface.

Program engineers are often here running tests on vehicles that won’t go into production for years—they’re now working on prototypes for model years 2028–2029.

The aerodynamic tests for ICE vehicles and EVs are basically identical, John Toth, North America’s engineering supervisor for wind tunnels, explained. But the two types of vehicles may respond differently and warrant different tweaks by engineers.

The system collects data on the vehicle’s drag, which affects fuel economy for ICE vehicles and battery range for EVs. One of the team’s focuses is on how to improve the aerodynamics to enable smaller batteries, since batteries make up roughly one-third of the cost of an EV. Bringing down that cost is an industry-wide objective as automakers try to deliver affordable models.

“We all know how expensive the batteries are, and how many rare earth materials and metals it takes to build these things,” Toth said. “So, if we can give our customers a better-performing vehicle with a smaller battery, it’s good all the way around. It’s cheaper for the customer, it’s better for the environment, and it’s overall better for us as a company.”

Virtual reality: Ford’s Driving Dynamics Lab is home to a simulator that helps with vehicle development. Program teams use the simulator to test trucks, EVs, advanced driver assistance system features, and more.

“The models that we create with all the various teams are run by a whole host of computers that basically translate everything that the vehicle would be doing in the real world, and are able to reproduce that here,” Louis Jamail, supervisor for simulation and core methods, said. “It’s basically a real-world way to experience something that’s digitally created, that doesn’t exist yet in reality.”

This speeds up the development cycle, Jamail said: “We can do a lot of things earlier, [when it’s] not even possible to build a prototype…Three to four weeks of test time we can do in a couple days.”

The tech simulates Ford’s proving grounds from across the globe as well as real-world road conditions. I tested out a 2025 Mustang Mach-E GT on a virtual highway, a 2024 F-150 with a loaded bed, and a 2025 Bronco on a laser-scanned Arizona dirt road, and felt differences in how all three handled, from the Mach-E’s smooth and speedy acceleration to the bumps on the simulated off-road course.

Prove it: Our final stop was Ford’s Michigan Proving Ground, where engineers test durability, performance, and capabilities by putting vehicles through punishing tests with lots of wear and tear. The site spans six square miles and has more than 100 miles of roads, including a high-speed track, steep grades, and a fire resistance facility.

We got a demonstration of the “29% test grade,” which evaluates a vehicle’s ability to go up inclines and ensures its parking brakes work. The top of this hill—which is so steep that it brings to mind a rollercoaster ride—is the highest point in the county.

The grounds also have durability tracks with obstacles like broken chunks of concrete that are used to measure how vehicles respond on rough surfaces. Three months of this type of testing is equivalent to 10 years of regular driving, per Ford. These tests are mostly done autonomously so that human drivers don’t have to endure the tough conditions.

These are just a few examples of the thousands of tests vehicles go through before they’re deemed ready for mass production—and eventually, the open road.

“It’s almost kind of a playground for engineers and designers…What’s going to happen in a snowstorm? Let’s find out,” Olson said.