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New Car Tech: We Drive The 2013 Ford Fusion Equipped With Lane Keeping Technology


New Car Tech: We Drive The 2013 Ford Fusion Equipped With Lane Keeping Technology

The 2013 Ford Fusion has been met with a warm reception from both the automotive press and the driving public. The styling has been talked about extensively, the small displacement turbocharged Ecoboost engines are making people rethink performance and now Ford is adding a lot of interesting technology to the Fusion and many other models in their lineup with features like their new lane keeping system which is what we were invited to test out at a recent Ford function near Boston.

The system uses a small forward facing camera that is integrated into the rear view mirror assembly to “see” the lines on the road. It actively detects the lane boundaries and monitors the car’s movements in relation to them. In the Fusion we drove, when we veered or wandered toward one line or the other, the wheel actually applied torque to turn itself and move the car back to the center of the lane. The torque/turning force wasn’t jerky or violent, rather it was a linear movement that felt like a big hand giving the car a gentle push back toward the center of the lane. The system has several options and settings where the driver can opt to have the wheel vibrate like a rumble strip in low, medium, ans high frequencies. Also, the system can be set to just alert the driver with a dashboard message rather than provide any mechanical input.

 

 

 

Michael Kane, Ford’s Vehicle Engineering Supervisor of Driver Assistance Technology was on hand and accompanied us on the test drive. We talked at length with Michael about the alert system and he let us know that the company has developed advanced algorithms that the car references in the alert system. These algorithms begin to detect various patterns in the driver’s behavior and the car will chime and place a warning on the dash that tells the driver that they are operating in a fatigued manner. If the instances or frequency of instances increase, the car will again alert the driver. There is a small coffee cup on the dash telling the driver that rest and or a driver switch may be in order. The car will not shut down, pull over, etc. These systems are warning systems and not designed to render the car inoperable. We asked Kane about a situation when someone gets into a car impaired on alcohol or drugs. The lane keeping and alert systems would work the same, but the reality is that someone who has already disregarded their safety and the safety of others on the road is probably not going to be all that interested in listening to warnings or alerts. There’s not a BangShifter out there who hasn’t driven right at the limit or even past the limit of exhaustion. Whether we’re gutting out a road trip, towing home from a long weekend at the races, or maybe on a banzai mission overnight to grab parts we need for a thrash, it has happened to all of us. (In the interest of full disclosure, I once fell asleep behind the wheel of a custom Ford F-650 truck I drove on one such cannonball for 24 hours straight…I woke up a half second before the truck and trailer went off the side of the highway at 80mph.) We often rail against “nanny state” technology. This is equipment and technology that we can clearly see the value in. Even if that value is protecting us  in our old cars from people falling asleep at the wheel of their new ones. There are some startling statistics floating out there from multiple sources like the NHTSB, AAA, and other such organizations. There are 100,000 fatigue related wrecks a year and AAA reports that some 250,000 people fall asleep at the wheel…a day. We don’t know about you, but keeping someone in their super quiet new car off the top of our rumbling old one sounds like a good thing to us.

Another additional technology Ford has integrated into these cars is a radar based blind spot indicator and cross traffic alert system. With radar points in the front and sides of the vehicle, it will warn you if you are going to change lanes into someone and in parking lot situations when backing out of a spot, it will alert you if someone is approaching from the side. The rear radar sensors are mounted inside the quarter panels. According to Kane, so long as the radar has a flat surface to “see through” being behind the steel and plastic in the quarter panel area will not take away from its effectiveness. This photo gives the general idea of where the sensor is located. The forward looking radar is responsible for managing the car’s adaptive cruise control as well. This feature allows the driver to set the cruise control and the car judges the distance between it and objects that it is following to accelerate and apply the brakes to maintain speed. It also has a collision warning with brake support built in so that if a wreck is imminent, the car will apply the brakes, potentially quicker than a person can.

 

We enjoyed our time with the 2013 Ford Fusion as it was the first opportunity we had gotten to drive one. The Titanium level Fusion we drove was very well equipped, had nicely supportive seats, a 2.0L Ecoboost engine and handsome 19″ optional wheels. The various systems that we spoke about above are all available in different option packages and different trim levels. The car was vault-like in its interior quietness and we liked the upscale nature of the interior. Yes, it is a mid-size sedan so it isn’t exactly excitement city in there, but it was a fun car to drive and had way more panache than a Camry.

The acceleration and advancement of automotive technology is one of the more fascinating parts of the industry these days. Things quickly compound on one another. For instance, without electric power steering, the active lane keeping technology wouldn’t exist. It was only a few years ago when stuff like this was pure science fiction. We’ll always be enthusiast drivers, people who take pride in doing it better than other people on the road, but we’re the minority. To paraphrase something that Jay Leno said years ago, it isn’t the guy driving the old car you have to worry about on the road, it is everyone else. The systems that Ford has been working on and now rolling out are aimed at making the road a safer place for everyone.

 

 


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15 thoughts on “New Car Tech: We Drive The 2013 Ford Fusion Equipped With Lane Keeping Technology

  1. Caveman Tony

    Can’t wait for the processor running the code for the “Lane Keeping” stuff to lock up… and now you are making an unwanted left into that nice Chevelle in the passing lane.

    Ask me about a C-17 that almost crashed because its ‘Terrain Avoidance’ software wasn’t behaving…

  2. Doc

    How will it do in the winter when the road is covered with snow or when the only asphalt the camera can see is two tire tracks in the snow?

  3. Anthony

    Brian,so how does it run? Does it boogey or is it a slug. BS approved or not? See if you can test a new Malibu with a turbo.

  4. Bishir

    Great? No more leg steering while I’m texting and driving. I may just climb in the back seat and take a nap.

    I don’t like anything steering the wheel for me… Too much can go wrong IMO. M

  5. Anonymous

    interesting car? not to me, but i’d imagine somebody out there might be interested (maybe a Prius owner..)
    Bangshifty? nope.

  6. Bobby J

    Thanks for the new tech update. It is great stuff and will save lives no doubt, plus it is cool.
    That said it is a long way from a buggy sprung Ford that most of us fell in love with, and why we’re hot rodders. No one will hot rod these things.

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