Ford plans on launching, within the next two years, a new generation of drive-assist and park-assist technologies that are more highly evolved than currently available systems. The carmaker has tripled its investment in research and development of drive-assist technologies, with the aim of improving the safety of vehicle occupants and of simplifying drivers’ experience when executing parking manoeuvres.
Plans include the incorporation into windshields of cameras, which will be connected to the vehicle’s navigation system, as well as the development of collision-avoidance technologies that will detect, using radar and cameras, slow or stopped vehicles ahead on the road. Park-assist systems being developed will be more highly evolved and usable for perpendicular as well as parallel parking.
Among other potential new technologies that may be fitted in Ford vehicles of the near-future are the Spot Lighting system for detecting pedestrians, cyclists and animals, and more-advanced front lights that will widen the range of the front headlight beams when the vehicle approaches an intersection.