Collaborative Efforts

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

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 included Ford, GM, Toyota, Daimler and Honda, worked with the U.S. Department of Transportation on projects to develop safety applications that utilize vehicle communications. Their efforts 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 projects that demonstrated the basic feasibility of this technology and evaluated several applications.

CAMP has now formed a VSC-3 Consortium with Ford, GM, Honda, Hyundai-Kia, Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota and VW-Audi to continue work on vehicle safety communications such as cooperative intersection collision avoidance systems and vehicle-to-vehicle communications for safety applications. This consortium is being funded by NHTSA to complete all of the pre-competitive work necessary for a deployment decision for vehicle safety communications in 2013.

CAMP is 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.

First Responder Training

Ford has been involved in several cooperative efforts with first responder groups in order to improve performance in the critical area of emergency response. The increasing use of stronger steels (e.g., boron steel, tubular hydroform steel, and high-strength steel) in motor vehicles, as well as issues surrounding hybrid vehicles (i.e., the challenge of disengaging the high-voltage battery), have raised some concerns by first responders regarding gaining access to vehicle occupants who have been involved in an accident. Engineers from Ford's Customer Service Division, Design Analysis and Crash Safety Departments have held several informative events with emergency first responder groups, ranging from equipment manufacturers like DeWalt and Hilti to local law enforcement and firefighters. First responder groups from several cities were represented in these sessions, where the industry's latest techniques for occupant extraction were reviewed and explained for various crash scenarios. The events were well received by the first responder community, and should help their important efforts in the future.

Ford Racing and the NHRA

Ford (through Ford Racing) has been working cooperatively with John Force Racing and the National Hot Rod Association to make significant safety improvements in the cars they use during testing and racing. Substantial safety improvements have already been implemented, including additional head padding (that is also thicker and more shock absorbent), stiffer chassis, and the Ford Blue Box data acquisition system (developed by Ford Racing and Delphi) to help with analysis of vehicle safety systems. This work will continue, with additional improvements expected in the years to come.

University Partnerships

Ford 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. The following are some examples:

• Projects within the Ford–MIT alliance are yielding progress in areas of vehicle autonomy and active safety, including computer vision, lane keeping, vehicle controls, obstacle detection and avoidance, and accurately assessing the driver's interaction with the vehicle. One project aims to assess the role of active safety technologies, features and functions in reducing driving-related stresses and enhancing driver wellness.
• At Auburn University, Ford has an ongoing project to conduct "sensor fusion" – that is, to coordinate between Global Positioning System sensors and the motion sensors in a vehicle's stability control systems, to predict when a driver is about to lose control. The ultimate goal is to use satellites to feed data to a vehicle's electronic stability control system, allowing it to adjust and prevent a loss-of-control accident.
• 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.
• At Virginia Tech, Ford has an ongoing URP project 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.
• A project at the State University of New York's Downstate Medical Center should yield an improved understanding of human tolerance to pelvis injury.
• 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 United States, approximately 40 percent of all traffic fatalities are alcohol-related (as reported 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 are 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 2009.

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. Testing was scheduled to begin in March 2010.

In another effort, Ford, GM and Chrysler 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. To that end, in November 2009, the U.S. government proposed the creation of an informal working group, under the UN's Global Road Safety Partnership, to fully develop WorldSID dummies for use in government regulations globally.

Ford is also involved in the Global Human Body Models 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 United States, 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.