Ford to Showcase Safety Concept Vehicles at ITS World Congress
IVsource.net
13 October 2002

Ford Motor Co. plans to showcase a pair of advanced Safety Concept Vehicles at the 9^th ITS World Congress this week in Chicago. The systems integrate the data received from low-light cameras, collision avoidance radar, and wireless vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to roadside communications systems to implement crash countermeasures.

Ford Motor Co. plans to showcase a pair of advanced Safety Concept Vehicles at the 9^th ITS World Congress this week in Chicago.

Ford says the systems integrate the data received from low-light cameras, collision avoidance radar, and wireless vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to roadside communications systems, to implement crash countermeasures.

The vehicles, a 2002 Taurus and 2002 Windstar, were developed in Ford's Manufacturing and Vehicle Design Research Laboratory directed by Charles Wu.  Also, Ford is working with the Michigan and Minnesota Departments of Transportation in demonstrating these features on the road.  Michigan DOT recently announced their plan to work more closely with automakers headquartered in the state, advocating cooperation between  smart cars and smart roads.

"The idea is to determine what are the critical technologies at a price you can afford," said Ronald Miller, Ford's Distributed Intelligence project leader.  The project will expand in the near future to include 100 additional test vehicles for real-world testing of DSRC and Intelligent Vehicle System Design aimed at reducing congestion and providing real-time traffic information.

According to Ford, they are using DSRC and 802.11b / 802.11a communications standards between vehicles to create a 'virtual floating network' ... and to enable omni-directional precrash sensing that reaches beyond 500 meters.

On the simulator, or 'buck,' that will be part of the display at the World Congress, is a Lincoln LS with no roof, cut from the a-pillar to b-pillar.  It has reconfigurable displays and some of the same functionality as in the Taurus and Windstar.  The half-vehicle is coupled to a driving simulation package, which has been modified to include vehicle-to-vehicle communication, smart intersections, and vehicle-to-roadside communication.

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