Car harnesses fighter jet technology

[R-Design]

Now that we’re all part of ‘One Ford’, I wonder how long it’ll take for Falcon to pick up some of these goodies.

Originally Posted by By Maggie Shiels
Technology reporter, BBC News, San Francisco

The Ford Taurus was originally introduced in 1986

The Ford motor company has harnessed technology from the F22 fighter jet as part of its bid to make its new Taurus "America's smartest full-sized sedan".

Radar devices are aimed at helping avoid crashes by sounding an alarm and flashing red lights when the driver gets too close to another car.

This hi-tech gadget is just one of a host being used by Ford to revive what was once the company's top seller.

"This is game changing for safety," said Ford's safety head Steve Kozak.

"The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the US put out a report last year saying if every vehicle in the US were equipped with this forward collision warning system, we'd save about 7,000 lives a year," Mr Kozak told BBC News.

Ford came to San Francisco as part of a 100-city tour to let journalists dive under the hood of the $30,000 (£18,000) car and give them access to a host of lead engineers.

Open source

The Taurus was discontinued after more than 20 years amid slumping sales and competition from Japanese carmakers but has been re-invented as part of a mission to redefine the company.


Radar technology is attached to the front and rear of the car

Ford was one of the few carmakers not to take bailout money from the government or file for bankruptcy, but it has struggled in recent years announcing record losses of $14.6bn (9bn) in 2008.

Radar is also located on the rear bumper of the Taurus to help prevent rear-end crashes, and warn drivers when they drift out of their lanes or if cars are in their blind spots.

Ford said the F22 radar technology which they took and built upon was all open source.

"F22 fighter jets use this advanced radar that can read down the road and identify everything from trees to people," said Pete Reyes, Ford's chief engineer for the 2010 Taurus.

"We then added our own Ford algorithms to determine whether or not objects are a 'vehicle target'.

"Then it monitors the vehicle target and always knows your position relative to those vehicle targets," explained Mr Reyes.

Teen safety

Ford says its vehicle features technological innovations which are not available all together in one car in its bracket.

These include a voice-activated navigation system, multi-contour seats that massage the driver to prevent tiredness, a surround-sound system and a technology called MyKey.


Ford said the new radar technology could well reduce accidents

With car accidents being cited as the leading cause of death for teenagers, MyKey is aimed at parents who want to control some of their children's driving behaviour.

When the car is started with MyKey, top speeds can be limited to 80mph (130kph) and chimes can be set to sound as the car goes above 45mph.

If the young driver does not put on their seat belt, another chime rings and - possibly more importantly to teens - the sound system will not start until the driver and passenger have buckled up.

Auto journalist Carey Russ sounded a note of caution.

"Too much safety equipment can lull people into thinking they don't need to pay attention and lead them to believe that if they do crash they will be safe."

"As technology is changing our lives with cell phones, media players, PCs and the internet, we are applying all of that to the car," said Ford director of electronics Jim Buczkowski.

"This is about the democratisation of technology and in the Taurus we are combining the features and technology that customers want."

Jon Alain Guzik, editor-in-chief of DriverSide.com said "As the consumer gets a lot more enthusiastic about technology and as technology starts mediating our lives a little more, we will see more of this filter down into the less expensive cars.

"Ford's value proposition here is impressive - it's BMW technology at a Ford price."

'Driver focused'

One of the other technologies Ford touted was its EcoBoost Turbo charger which adds another 101 HP (horse power) to a 249HP engine while still meeting the government's fuel efficiency requirements.


Ford's EcoBoost aims to provide more power with less fuel and emissions

The Taurus 2010 will average 17mpg in the city and 25mpg on the motorway, on a par with the competition, according to the consumer auto site Edmund.com.

"The turbo charger simply means is if you have a V6 engine it will deliver the power of a V8 with the fuel economy of a V6," said Mr Reyes.

Ford also demonstrated the self-park technology on its Lincoln brand.

Using sensors, the car will find a parking space and reverse park. The driver takes their hands off the steering wheel but still operates the accelerator and the brake.

Charles Donaldson of Autofastracks.com was impressed by his test drive.

"It's a very intelligent system," he said. "It knew where the parking space was and certainly made parallel parking much easier than I have found it in the past."

As well as highlighting its technological advances and touring around the country, he company is using Facebook and Twitter to get out the message that "Ford is back".

"The Taurus 2010 is a statement about where Ford is going," said Mr Reyes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8249530.stm

[Road_Warrior]

Interesting, but I would say it wont make it here for cost reasons.

Unless FoA introduced a new range-topper above the G6ET (Customline anyone?) that would carry gadgets like this.

[Airmon]

Hope it doesn't come here, I can't imagine anything more annoying then a chime and flashing light everytime the car thinks you are too close to another car.

Good to see a positive article about ford for a change though.

[LANKY 1]

Originally Posted by Airmon

Hope it doesn't come here, I can't imagine anything more annoying then a chime and flashing light everytime the car thinks you are too close to another car.

Good to see a positive article about ford for a change though.

Yeah too right!! as good as it is, lights and buzzing is annoying. I would have set it off a few times today i reckon! love the au! only beeps when it really has to.

[needaXYGT]

Its good that ford are brining these sort of things out onto the market. But realisticaly, the radar systems in a F-22 fighter is worth hell of alot more than the whole car (taurus) and are far more advanced.

[Bundy]

"The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the US put out a report last year saying if every vehicle in the US were equipped with this forward collision warning system, we'd save about 7,000 lives a year," Mr Kozak told BBC News.

Ever wonder if every car had this sort of technology how many lives would be taken by Cancer??

RF energy like that from mobile phones to microwaves to radars and sonars cook you from the inside out.
How many saw the 60 minute special on mobile phones and brain cancer, thats with just .25w of RF energy, 1000W microwave cooking you food, lucky its incased in a box,
25KW Radar on a ship (thats Mil spec, maritme use can be from 2KW to 10KW) same thing, I've seen waterbirds sitting on the Radar platform brain fried in a few of hours.

RF energy now booming out on cars in you local neighbour hood, Dunno what wattage there going to be rated at, but being that they'll be on all the time collision avoiding (cause pethiedic drivers can't, dang those onboard distractions) it won't be long before unprecidented youth cancer hits the media, mark my words.

Don't even get me started on the whales and dolphins that mistakenly beaching themselves...

please its just your and allied navies playing in the area with subs. Sonar is just radar underwater.

[Dave_au]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Interesting, but I would say it wont make it here for cost reasons.

Actually I would say it will be an option in Commodores and Falcons within 5 years; the technology is already in a lot of prestige cars; my folk's IS250 Lexus for example has active radar cruise control which when cruise control is activated, it will brake the car if you come screaming up behind a slow vehicle or if traffic suddenly slows.

It also works passively and if the car determines that a crash is unavoidable it will start to prepare the car for impact - fire pretensioners, move seats upright etc.

It has its faults though - I particularly hate the distance the radar cruise control keeps between vehicles (admittedly it does follow the 3 second rule) as it leaves just enough gap for everyone else to jump in front of you.

[Piotr]

The current model Ford Mondeo has radar cruise control. Available in Australia too