Together with Volvo, Ford is developing a suite of accident avoidance features that use forward-looking radar and vision sensors. These features are being developed to help forewarn drivers of potentially dangerous situations, such as an unintended lane departure, following too closely to a car in front or a pedestrian who might have walked into the path of a car. Several of these technologies are now available on the 2007 Volvo S80 and are discussed in the case study on that vehicle.
Driver Alert and Lane Departure Warning systems are among several advanced technologies being developed. Driver Alert aims to combat driver fatigue, which is a major traffic-safety problem throughout the world. This world-first innovation analyzes a car's progress on the road and alerts the driver before he or she falls asleep. Driver Alert uses a camera, sensors and a computer processor to monitor the vehicle's movements and assess whether it is being driven in a controlled or uncontrolled manner. This patented method is unique among vehicle manufacturers and has been tested both on the road and in simulators with excellent results and very high dependability. Driver Alert is expected to be available on production vehicles in two years.
Lane Departure Warning uses a forward-looking camera to continuously monitor the road and keep track of where the car is in relation to the lane markings. If the driver loses concentration and the vehicle's wheels move outside the lane markings, a warning chime alerts the driver. Lane Departure Warning has been demonstrated on various concept vehicles but is not yet available on production models.
Forward-looking radar and vision sensors may also be used in the future to help drivers avoid collisions with pedestrians. In 2006, the VIRTTEX lab broke new ground by using its advanced computer graphics to simulate pedestrians in the virtual world. Ford and Volvo worked together to test advanced systems that can help alert a driver in some situations when a pedestrian unexpectedly crosses the road near the path of the driver's car. By using "virtual pedestrians" in a VIRTTEX-simulated drive, researchers were able to test a wide variety of situations involving people and moving cars in the safety of the laboratory. Different warning strategies for helping the driver recognize the situation and take action were analyzed by our safety experts, and the most promising strategies are being developed for possible inclusion in future products.
Ford was recently awarded $1.8 million to develop a simulation tool for NHTSA to estimate the benefits of future active safety features. Ford, Volvo and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute will work together to research Lane Departure Warning and Driver Alert systems, as well as other advanced technology systems, as case studies. Accident database information and driver data from test track and VIRTTEX experiments will be used as input for this simulation.
