“Reporting from Dearborn, MI, I was pleasantly surprised by Ford’s “safety technology” demonstration – a ride in a kitted out Ford Explorer to demonstrate various ways new cars will avoid collisions. After the demonstration, which turned out to be fascinating, it struck me that public safety is an obvious aspect of sustainability – not to mention common-sense business. Keeping people safe matters.
Let’s start with the basics:
Ford has had something called “adaptive cruise control” for a couple years now (PDF here). It’s a simple radar on the front of your car which determines whether a distant vehicle in front of you is travelling a slower rate of speed. As you get close to it, your car automatically adjusts its cruise control to a slower rate to avoid a rear end collision. It will automatically increase your speed if the other car moves out of the way or speeds up.
More exciting, however was a system called the “Blind Spot Information System” and a host of ways cars will “talk” to each other to communicate their positions and speed – avoiding more complex collisions hundreds of yards in advance. Take a look at this:”
Ford’s Safety Technology Tells a Sustainability Story via Nick Aster – Triple Pundit