- Ford is working with Traffic Improvement Association to help older drivers evaluate their driving skills at a time when the U.S. elderly population is growing faster than any other demographic.
- Other than teen-age drives, drivers age 65 and older have the highest accident and traffic fatality rates among all age groups.
- Ford continues to develop active safety and driver-aid technologies that are helpful to older drivers and others who cope with physical limitations.
DEARBORN, Dec. 10, 2008 – Ford Motor Company is expanding its sponsorship of a pilot program with the non-profit Traffic Improvement Association (TIA) to help older drivers test their skills and evaluate their ability to safely operate motor vehicles.
TIA presented a record 38 Ford-sponsored workshops at hospitals and senior centers around Michigan in 2008. Even more workshops will be offered in 2009. The three-day workshops are confidential, voluntary and designed to allow seniors to self-evaluate their skills.
The effort complements Ford’s aggressive introduction of vehicle features and technologies that address the safety needs of older drivers and those with physical limitations.
“Ford is committed to helping older drivers assess their skills and address any limitations they may have since safety is a major issue,” said Jim Graham, manager, Ford Motor Company Fund’s Driving Skills for Life program. “Our pilot program with TIA is designed to help older drivers evaluate their eyesight and reflexes, and to provide retraining when appropriate.”
Ford is working with TIA to provide driving skills evaluation of older motorists at a time when the U.S. elderly population is growing faster than any other age demographic. The aging Baby Boomer generation is expected to increase the number of U.S. licensed drivers 65 and older by 25 percent in the next decade, as its oldest members turn 65 in 2011. By 2020, their number will reach 40 million. Other than teen-age drivers, drivers age 65 and older have the highest accident and traffic fatality rates among all age groups, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The classroom portion of the workshop educates older motorists about the effects of aging on reflexes and cognitive skills. It also teaches compensation skills for diminished abilities, and reinforces fundamental defensive driving techniques. The program includes an on-the-road evaluation conducted by AAA-certified instructors in the students’ own vehicles.
“Driving is a continuous learning process,” said Frank Cardimen, president of TIA. “Regardless of how good a driver you are, there is always room for improvement. The workshop is designed to enhance driving skills and make drivers more observant, cautious and confident while on the road.”
TIA’s workshops were first presented in southeast Michigan from 1989 to 1991 with a grant from NHTSA. To date, TIA has offered more than 200 workshops in community facilities throughout Michigan to help older drivers stay on the road for as long as safely possible.
Graham said the TIA pilot program is a potential step toward creating an ongoing driving education program for senior citizens that could share common practices with Driving Skills for Life, Ford Fund’s global award-winning safe-driving program for teens.
Meeting the Needs of Drivers of All Ages
Automotive needs of mature drivers and others who have physical limitations have long been of interest to Ford researchers. In the late 1990s, Ford became the first automobile manufacturer to use a “third-age suit,” a special outfit made of materials that add bulk and restrict movement at key areas of the body. The suit helped Ford’s human factors researchers to better understand older drivers’ mobility challenges and vehicle needs.
Today, Ford researchers are using an exclusive suite of powerful virtual design tools to address the needs of all drivers, including older drivers and those with mobility limitations. Within Ford’s Immersive Virtual Review (iVR) lab in Dearborn, engineers conduct anthropometric research to ensure vehicle designs can accommodate the broadest range of customers. Items evaluated in a virtual environment range from reach and roominess, ingress, and egress, to examining door-handle location.
“No other automaker marries the virtual and physical worlds together like Ford,” said Elizabeth Baron, Ford’s VR & Advanced Visualization Technical Specialist. “These tools and others are helping Ford provide the better visibility, quality and comfort valued by drivers of all ages.”
Active Safety Features Benefit All Ages
One in five drivers – 54 million people in the U.S. – cope with temporary or permanent physical challenges such as injury or obesity that can inhibit their abilities to turn their heads to check blind spots or avoid a rear-end collision.
Such findings have helped to drive Ford’s development of radar- and camera-based active safety and driver-aid technologies, such as backing and parking aids, forward collision warning systems and Adaptive Cruise Control.
“Systems that support backing and parking maneuvers should help improve the performance of older drivers who have difficulty looking over their shoulders,” said Dr. Louis Tijerina, Ford senior technical specialist.
Ford will launch new Blind Spot Mirrors, Collision Warning with Brake Support forward collision warning technology and BLIS® (Blind Spot Information System) with Cross Traffic Alert – a radar system that helps detect vehicles in blind spots during normal driving and oncoming traffic when reversing out of parking spots – in 2009.
“Older drivers are more involved in intersection crashes than their numbers in the driving population would suggest,” Tijerina explained. “Collision avoidance systems such as Collision Warning with Brake Support may help to compensate for their increased reaction time by helping them to brake earlier or harder than they otherwise would.”
The new technologies build on Ford’s leading number of top safety ratings, including the most 5-star government ratings of any automaker, and a leading number of Insurance Institute for Highway Safety “Top Safety Picks.”
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About Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company, a global automotive industry leader based in Dearborn, Mich., manufactures or distributes automobiles across six continents. With about 224,000 employees and about 90 plants worldwide, the company's core and affiliated automotive brands include Ford, Lincoln, Mercury, Volvo and Mazda. The company provides financial services through Ford Motor Credit Company. For more information regarding Ford's products, please visit www.ford.com.