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Improving Vehicle Safety

Quality is critical to the safety of our customers and, therefore, to our responsibilities and success as a company. Safety continues to be one of the highest priorities in the design of our vehicles. We are committed to designing and manufacturing vehicles that achieve high levels of safety over a wide range of real-world conditions.

Our Approach to Vehicle Safety

Our corporate safety policy, Policy Letter 7, outlines our commitment to design and build vehicles that meet or exceed applicable laws and regulations, while meeting the safety needs and expectations of our customers. In line with our policy letter, Ford is continuously working to enhance the safety of our products, a fundamental aspect of our Quality Operating System (QOS).

We conduct engineering analyses, computer simulations and crash testing to evaluate the performance of vehicles and components at a number of sites around the world.

In addition to meeting or exceeding regulatory requirements, our processes, tools and facilities confirm that our vehicles align with our own stringent internal guidelines on safety design, as well as Ford-specified levels of performance for Public Domain tests. We regularly re-evaluate and update these guidelines as appropriate.

  Learn more about our efforts to encourage safer driving

Public Domain Ratings

Public Domain rating programs vary around the world, each having unique testing protocols and evaluation criteria. Among other consumer advocacy groups, organizations such as New Car Assessment Programs (NCAPs) and insurance-sponsored organizations that rate vehicles for safety exist globally. NCAPs, which have traditionally included vehicle crashworthiness ratings, are increasingly introducing pedestrian protection assessments along with driver assist and crash avoidance technology evaluations.

NCAPs around the world are continually being updated and often use different evaluation procedures, making it increasingly difficult to achieve the highest ratings. This disparity in what is evaluated, and the procedure or method used, can lead to different ratings for the same vehicle across regions. These inconsistencies pose additional challenges for global automotive companies like Ford, and may even require us to implement unique vehicle designs in different markets.

Nonetheless, we continue to get high marks for vehicle safety in key public and private crash-testing programs (see below for latest data, and in customer satisfaction and quality surveys.

Global Safety Public Domain Organizations

  Examine our vehicle safety performance in more detail