If you’ve got it, flaunt it. This goes for personal looks, and for radar. You need radar to make Adaptive Cruise Control work, so you might as well get radar to do some other neat stuff. One of new radar-based systems available on several Ford products (Taurus, MKS, MKT) is Collision Warning with Brake Support.
Steven Kozak, Chief Engineer, Ford Global Safety, told us that the radar unit in question is a new, third-generation Delphi unit, that also sees duty in fighter jets. For this application it sweeps 325 feet in front of the vehicle, and sends information to a computer. The computer locks in on 64 targets at a time, marking them as “threats” or “non threats.”
A “threat” is basically anything that would cause sheet metal damage if you drove into it. If the computer determines your rate of closure on this threat will culminate with a collision, it warns the driver with an authoritative beep and red warning light projected on the windshield above the instrument panel.
If the risk of collision increases despite the warning, the brake support is activated. There are two elements of brake support: the system fully pressurizes; the calipers move as close to the discs as they can without actually braking. There is no "automatic" braking. But when drivers do brake they get full and immediate brake pressure.
While the system has the potential for automatic braking, Ford chose not to design it that way, at least for now. Kozak noted that many drivers don’t want computers taking over. For that reason, it is taking a “walk before running” approach, and packaging the system as stand-alone options, so people will not forced to have them on their vehicles.
But Ford is definitely going to push the safety envelopment, especially in mass-market vehicles. Kozak noted that other radar-based auto-brake systems, as well as most new and high-tech safety technologies, are most always restricted to higher end vehicles, such as Volvo or Mercedes-Benz.
Moving such safety systems to vehicles like Taurus, and eventually to all mass vehicles down Ford’s line, is a mission of the automaker’s — one that Kozak refers to as “the democratization of safety.”
photo:Mike Goetz
Steven Kozak, Chief Engineer, Ford Global Safety, told us that the radar unit in question is a new, third-generation Delphi unit, that also sees duty in fighter jets. For this application it sweeps 325 feet in front of the vehicle, and sends information to a computer. The computer locks in on 64 targets at a time, marking them as “threats” or “non threats.”
A “threat” is basically anything that would cause sheet metal damage if you drove into it. If the computer determines your rate of closure on this threat will culminate with a collision, it warns the driver with an authoritative beep and red warning light projected on the windshield above the instrument panel.
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| Steven Kozak, Chief Engineer, Ford Global Safety. |
If the risk of collision increases despite the warning, the brake support is activated. There are two elements of brake support: the system fully pressurizes; the calipers move as close to the discs as they can without actually braking. There is no "automatic" braking. But when drivers do brake they get full and immediate brake pressure.
While the system has the potential for automatic braking, Ford chose not to design it that way, at least for now. Kozak noted that many drivers don’t want computers taking over. For that reason, it is taking a “walk before running” approach, and packaging the system as stand-alone options, so people will not forced to have them on their vehicles.
But Ford is definitely going to push the safety envelopment, especially in mass-market vehicles. Kozak noted that other radar-based auto-brake systems, as well as most new and high-tech safety technologies, are most always restricted to higher end vehicles, such as Volvo or Mercedes-Benz.
Moving such safety systems to vehicles like Taurus, and eventually to all mass vehicles down Ford’s line, is a mission of the automaker’s — one that Kozak refers to as “the democratization of safety.”
photo:Mike Goetz