Have you ever been on a busy city street and come across a parking spot that you knew your car would fit in but you are terrible at parallel parking? Ford may have introduced something that you would be interested in.
At the Ford Futures event in Belgium, the Blue Oval unveiled a pair of prototypes that could sooner rather than later make cars more self-sufficient than they are today. One of their innovations is a system called the Fully Assisted Parking Aid. At first glance it seems a little more advanced than the self-parking systems that are currently available in modern cars, which scan the road for suitably large openings and slot themselves in. Ford’s new system takes that idea a step further by letting the driver step out and walk away before the car parks itself. This certainly has the potential to make door dings obsolete, not to mention solving the situation we all know and love – being super late for an appointment, not being able to find a parking space and ultimately missing out. With this new feature from Ford, you may still end up being a little late, but at least difficulty in parking won’t elevate your stress level more! What’s next, the ability to send the car down the road on its own to hunt for parking spots?
Ford is also developing an avoidance system that combines automatic steering with automatic braking. This would allow a car to apply the brakes before hitting an obstacle and, if unable to stop in time, steer itself out of the way. The system scans 200 meters ahead using a camera and ultrasonic sensors and warns the driver with a chime if something looks amiss. If the driver doesn’t react, the car will — as long as it’s traveling less than 38 mph. The unfortunate thing about this particular feature is the limited response – while a lot of accidents happen at speeds less than 38 mph, they are the most survivable. So this innovation helps, but doesn’t necessarily save lives. Yet.
Both systems are in the prototype stage, installed by Ford on vehicles for testing only. But, they give a strong indication of the sorts of (likely optional) features we can expect in just a few years.
