Collaborative Efforts

Ford Motor Company is involved with a number of partners to enhance the safety of the driving experience and develop future technologies.

European Field Operational Test on Active Safety Systems

One of the biggest issues regarding advanced safety systems is real-world user behavior. In 2008, to gain greater insight on this topic, Ford launched a major European research project to deliver a large-scale field operational test on active safety systems. Under the EU's Seventh Framework Program (FP7) for research and technological development, this project joins together 28 partners – including vehicle manufacturers, suppliers, universities and research centers – and will run for three years. More than 1,500 cars and trucks will be equipped with a range of new active safety technologies, along with advanced data collection capabilities. This will allow a thorough evaluation of the new technologies, in real-world scenarios and with ordinary drivers. The project is led by the Ford research center in Aachen, Germany, and includes 100 Ford and 100 Volvo vehicles.

CAMP

In 1995, Ford and General Motors launched the Crash Avoidance Metrics Partnership (CAMP) to conduct pre-competitive active safety research with other OEMs, suppliers and the U.S. government. Within CAMP, the Vehicle Safety Communications Two (VSC-2) Consortium, which includes Ford, GM, Toyota, DaimlerChrysler and Honda, is working with the U.S. Department of Transportation on two major projects to develop safety applications that utilize vehicle communications. Their efforts are focused on developing a communication system whereby vehicles can "talk" to each other and to the roadway. This would be analogous to a wireless internet system or a cellular telephone for cars. CAMP VSC-2 successfully completed a project that demonstrated the basic feasibility of this technology, and is evaluating the following applications in a follow-on project:

• Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System: Violation Warning
  As a vehicle approaches a traffic light, it would receive a message from the traffic light with the signal phase (red, yellow or green) and the amount of time until the signal changes. The vehicle would use this information, together with the vehicle position and speed, to decide if a warning or some other countermeasure (such as brake assist) is appropriate. The systems engineering and system design were completed, and a prototype vehicle was developed. This prototype was used to successfully complete a pilot field operational test of the system.
• Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications for Safety Applications, such as Electronic Emergency Brake Lights (EEBL)
  The vehicle manufacturers in the VSC-2 are working together with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to investigate the messages needed for a host of vehicle-to-vehicle safety applications, including EEBL. For example, when a driver applies the brakes, the brake lights are illuminated, but there is currently no way to distinguish hard braking from light or moderate braking. Further, often only the vehicle directly behind the braking vehicle is able to see the brake lights. If a vehicle performing hard braking could send a message to other vehicles, then those vehicles could warn their drivers, activate brake assist or even start automatic braking. Other applications that evolved out of the work on wireless vehicle-to-vehicle technology include active safety systems such as forward collision warning technologies and lane-keeping systems.

CAMP consortia are also conducting two additional projects with NHTSA. The Crash Imminent Braking Project (involving Ford, GM, Mercedes, Continental and Delphi) is developing minimum performance requirements and objective test procedures for systems that automatically apply the brakes to avoid crashes or mitigate the severity of a crash. The Advanced Restraint Systems Project (involving Ford, GM and Mercedes) is developing restraint systems that utilize pre-crash and occupant sensing information.

The Advanced Emergency Communications Coalition

For the past 10 years, the ComCARE Emergency Response Alliance has served as an important public voice for improving emergency communications. ComCARE encouraged the establishment of wireless communication networks, infrastructure and technologies that enable emergency communications between the motoring public and public safety agencies. Ford has participated on the Board of Directors of ComCARE for most of the past decade and helped to write the Vehicle Emergency Data Set standard proposed by ComCARE in 2002. Late last year, the ComCARE Board voted to reorganize and establish a new organization to continue ComCARE's advocacy. The name selected for the new organization is the Advanced Emergency Communications Coalition, with the mission "to advocate for the adoption and improvement of advanced emergency communications technologies."

University Partnerships

Ford Motor Company is increasingly collaborating with university partners on crucial advanced safety technology projects. Ford has major research alliances with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Michigan and Northwestern University and has utilized Ford's global University Research Program (URP) to collaborate with leading researchers at more than 100 universities worldwide. Safety is a central thrust in our collaborative university programs.

Important projects are underway within the Ford–MIT alliance, yielding progress in areas of vehicle autonomy and "active safety" – that is, technology to prevent accidents from occurring, including computer vision, lane keeping, vehicle controls, obstacle detection and avoidance, and accurately assessing the driver's interaction with the vehicle. At the University of Michigan, safety work includes a portfolio of projects on 360° sensing and developing more robust and capable active vehicle control and enhanced collision avoidance systems, utilizing both onboard sensors and offboard information sources.

Ford has an ongoing URP project at Virginia Tech assessing the properties of maternal tissues from pregnant women. This project will enable the improvement of computer models to help gain a better understanding of the injury risk to pregnant women and their unborn babies. Another project at the State University of New York's Downstate Medical Center should yield an improved understanding of human tolerance to pelvis injury, and collaborative work is ongoing with Purdue University investigating enhanced vehicle dynamics and stability control.

As part of its accident research projects in Germany, the UK and Australia, Ford works closely with internationally acknowledged safety experts from the Universities of Hannover, Loughborough, Dresden, Birmingham and Monash.

Collaborative university work catalyzes innovation at Ford by providing access to the leading researchers at the cutting edge of vehicle dynamics and stability control, accident avoidance and driver assist safety technology to name just a few. Ford will continue to integrate these collaborative innovations, driving continuous improvement in real-world safety and sustainability for all Ford Motor Company products.

Alcolock Blue Ribbon Panel

Reducing the incidence of impaired driving would go a long way toward improving road traffic safety. In the EU, 25–30 percent of all car accidents involve alcohol. In the U.S., approximately 40 percent of all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related (as defined by NHTSA).

The Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety formed a Blue Ribbon Panel (BRP) in 2007 for the development of advanced alcohol detection technology, often called "alcolocks." The panel consists of vehicle manufacturers, including Ford, alcohol detection technology suppliers, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, government representatives and other experts.

The BRP and its research is being funded jointly by NHTSA and the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. The purpose of the research is to "...engage major automakers in cooperative research that advances the state of alcohol detection technology...to promote the standardization of the technology, its widespread deployment, and acceptance by the general public."

Ford continued to participate in the work of the Blue Ribbon Panel through the Alliance during 2008.

New Crash-Test Dummies

Crash-test dummies are essential research tools that aid in the development of passive safety technologies, and Ford Motor Company continues to develop, often in partnership with other parties, more advanced test dummies.

From 2005 through 2008, Ford partnered with the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and the Takata Corporation in a multi-year project to develop a new abdominal insert and sensor for a crash-test dummy representing a six-year-old child. CHOP studies have shown that, in vehicle crashes, significant abdominal injury in four- to eight-year-old children is second in frequency of occurrence only to head and facial injuries. Abdominal injuries often occur when children too young (i.e., the four- to eight-year-old range) utilize adult restraint systems without a booster seat. The abdominal insert and sensor will allow restraint engineers industry-wide to test the potential for abdominal injuries in children and ultimately improve the development of in-vehicle restraint systems for young children. In February 2008, the Society of Automotive Engineers established a task force to perform "round robin" testing of the new dummy component, and the group held its first meeting in June. More than 20 organizations from around the globe have signed up to participate. Tests will be performed by dummy manufacturers, other OEMs and NHTSA's Vehicle Research and Test Center.

In another effort, Ford, GM and DaimlerChrysler have been working together under the auspices of the Occupant Safety Research Partnership (OSRP), a group within the U.S. Council for Automotive Research, to research, develop, test and evaluate advanced crash-test dummies and other pre-competitive safety systems. A number of years ago, the OSRP initiated development of WorldSID, a male side-impact dummy that is recognized as the most advanced crash-test dummy ever created. From 2006 through 2008, the OSRP worked with NHTSA to help them evaluate WorldSID for potential use in the federal government's new side-impact crash-test standard. NHTSA concluded that the "biofidelity" of WorldSID is better than that of the dummy in the current side-impact regulation. WorldSID is the first side-impact dummy with the potential to be commonly used in side-impact regulations around the world.

Ford is also involved in the Global Human Body Modeling Consortium (GHBMC), which holds promise for the future of safety research. Established in 2006 by nine automotive manufacturers (including Ford) and two automotive suppliers, the GHBMC is working to develop next-generation, computer-generated virtual reality models of the human body. These advanced models will help researchers to better predict the effect of trauma resulting from automobile crashes on the human body and enable a variety of virtual crash tests, with the ultimate goal of improving automotive safety globally. The research and development is currently being led by multidisciplinary teams at universities in five countries – the U.S., Canada, France, India and Korea – with the first set of human digital models expected to be completed in 2011. Ford brings much expertise to this effort, having developed its own human body model representing an average-sized male occupant and publishing this work in peer-reviewed journals over the last 15 years. Ford continues to refine its human body model for use in internal research.