2013 Fusion: Life in the Safe Lane
Falling asleep at the wheel can quickly turn into a nightmare when travelling, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that 1,500 people each year are killed, and 71,000 injured, due to crashes caused by drowsy drivers. But those kinds of numbers served as a wakeup call for Ford engineers, who designed the all-new 2013 Ford Fusion to be the first mainstream mid-size sedan in America to offer “lane keeping” technology to combat this problem.
The Ford Lane Keeping System relies on a small digital camera that’s mounted on the windshield just in front of the rearview mirror. It allows the system to recognize lane markers on the road ahead of the Fusion to determine if the car is drifting, then can set off three different levels of driver alerts. First, an icon on the Fusion’s instrument cluster will turn yellow while the steering wheel—leveraging the latest Electronic Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) technology—will vibrate as if the car were driving over rumble strips. If the vehicle continues to drift, the icon turns red and EPAS will “nudge” the Fusion back toward the center of the lane. If the driver still doesn’t respond, the system will both nudge the vehicle and vibrate the steering wheel at the same time.
Significantly, though, the system always remains under driver control: It must be activated by the driver for it to work in the first place, while turning the Fusion’s steering wheel, accelerating or braking will overcome the nudge/vibration functions.
The automaker will add the Lane Keeping System to the Ford Explorer next year as well, and bring it to other members of the Ford lineup over the next several years.
Stay tuned for more information on the all-new 2013 Ford Fusion, which will be revealed to the public at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January.