safety

I tested out Ford vehicles at the Dearborn Development Center with a special emphasis on safety and technology as a journalist/guest for their 2010 product review. Here’s what I experienced in simulation — the Cross Traffic Alert, which essentially kicks in when backing out of a driveway, rear sensors are set off by unseen approaching vehicles. I backed up as a car came flying down the track, sparking the car’s tech reflexes – a big beep and a flashing of red warning light alerts of what’s coming.

Radars systems installed also alert when the car senses approaching objects, which goes one step further than Volvo’s camara-based technology. Ford calls this Adaptive Cruise Control with Collision Warning with Brake Support. The system also automatically engages a brake-assist feature that aids in stopping before crashing. Ford’s BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) with Cross Traffic Alert debuts in spring 2009 on the 2010 Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan and then rolls out on the 2010 Taurus, MKS and MKT.

Also along for the tech-safety ride were Ford Models that already have option for self parallel parking, including the 2010 Lincoln MKS and the Lincoln MKT (see our review here). If you’re like me and not a master at negotiating spatial relationships, this feature is a winner. Self parking works seamlessly and more quickly (up to 7 mph) than Lexus’s self-park system, which was first to market with the technology on the LS 460.

While, I came away feeling safer, this technological savvy also contributed to my unease at the direction we’re all headed. The truth is that these features are pertinent in a society where many of us are just plain distracted — one ringing cell phone, one quick scroll for a new playlist on the ipod, or a sip from the piping hot coffee cup, and a driver’s eyes are off the road. Accordingly, if we continue down this path of doing while we drive, we may be moving toward cars that drive themselves, our own private vessels.

About six years ago I interviewed a professor from the Art Center College of Design who professed that within fifty years our cars will look like virtual living rooms. [click to continue…]

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