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Ford System Will Warn, Correct Lane-Drifting Drivers
PolygamousRanchKid writes "Ford says its new Fusion, which will debut at the North American International Auto Show in a couple weeks, will be the first mainstream midsize sedan in North America to offer a lane departure system. Lane departure systems are aimed at warning drivers, especially drowsy ones, if their vehicles wander out of their lane. A digital camera mounted on the windshield ahead of the rear-view mirror keeps a watch. The system not only causes the steering wheel to vibrate if it senses an unintentional lane departure, it will also steer the car back into the right lane. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes occur every year as a result of drowsy drivers, leading to 1,500 deaths, 71,000 injuries and $12.5 billion in monetary losses." I'd just like to know how hard the AI will fight if it misinterprets a driver's intentional lane change.
Personally, I'd guess that a turn signal will convince the AI to allow an intentional lane change.
cb
Oooh! What does this button do!?
What will it do in the winter when the clear tire tracks that are safe to follow aren't necessarily perfectly between the lines?
already has Lane Keep Assist. It doesn't steer me back into the lane, but it does give me an annoying beep when it senses me leaving the lane. Personally, I'd much rather have my car alert me about this stuff and let me control the vehicle rather than have the vehicle do the stuff on its own.
In works zones some times you see lines all over the place will the AI be smart and auto trun off when it sees that?
Also on new pavement you see the temp lines that may not be picked up the AI.
The idea that we should promote drowsy driving by making it (hypothetically) less fatal to do so is laughably absurd. Sometimes a driver needs to swerve to miss an accident occurring--no time to signal, so into the pileup we go? Hmm...
WTF is a sedan? Americans.
Bad timing for that feature, after Toyotos troubles. People now know that steering wheels, accelerator pedals, brakes are just interfaces, not the actual "controls". I think many people would prefer for cars to be less automatic and give them more control from that perspective.
What happens when Ford, like Toyoto, outsources some component to a third party who fucks up? You are driving along one day when you car decides you aren't driving properly and decides to ram you into a tree.
but none of the responsibility or liability.
sort of like, ohhh, I don't know - maybe posting as an AC ??
you'd be the expert on that, then.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
So if I get on the highway can I set my cruise control and take my hands off the wheel?
I love Jesus, except for his foreign policy.
I wonder what some of the sci-fi/big brother application of this technology might be.
Hackers/terrorists taking over cars on a major freeway to guide people to their deaths?
The police/government deciding they have a problem with you and then seizing control of your car while you are driving it?
It's going to go hoarse here in Alabama.
When I first moved here and experienced my first traffic jam, I watched in amazement as the people drove over the median, onto sidewalks, around light poles and right on the edge of ditches.
Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
You would think Buick would be the first to come out with this in the US, given their customer demographic.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
"Proper, US-sized engine blocks" aren't selling well, and when you consider the cost savings they'd forego if they didn't share parts between their US, European, and Asian lines, are even less cost-effective to sell.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
My Prius already does this. But I guess maybe that's a "hatchback", not a "sedan". And admittedly, it's an option available only on the premium configuration, so there might be an argument to be made of whether it's "mainstream" or not. Or maybe they don't consider it a "midsize" vehicle; I hear it has the interior volume of a midsize, but a smaller wheelbase than many midsize cars. It is, at least, "North American", though.
Point being, every one of those qualifiers is there because somebody else really did it first. Not that I'm claiming the Prius did it first, mind you.
It is a nice feature though, and I hope a baby step towards self-driving cars.
smart cars lead to dumb drivers. On good roads people drive faster, not better. In smart cars people will drive thinking they are safer and will take more risks. As nice as the idea is, the people that this system targets should not be driving.
There was an unknown error in the submission.
I'd just like to know how hard the AI will fight if it misinterprets a driver's intentional lane change.
Obviously if you're changing lanes intentionally you should indicate - always. So presumably the system has a simple "if indicating, ignore movement" check somewhere. So this should also prompt people to indicate when they're driving/overtaking, which is an added bonus.
If only Ford didn't go all Eurotrash and eviscerate anything American from their lineup, favoring globalized-to-hell golfcarts with fancy electronics as the mass market option.
The USA's push for higher fuel efficiency requirements across a company's product line is having that effect.
More globalized-to-hell golfcarts is exactly what we'll get, because European gas taxes already created a market for small cars with small engines.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
If only... then they'd still be circling the drain like they were before they made the change.
A "proper US-sized engine block" is a selfish and environmentally damaging pointless excess. Thankfully the sales figures these days appear to corroborate that.
It's a nice feature and all, but it seems to be more of a distraction from the lack of a proper, US-sized engine block under the hood than anything else.
By US-sized do you mean built on tech from the seventies, and oversized because the car has to be large enough to qualify as a truck?
I'll never understand why Americans persist in trying to poke fun at other country's cars when their own are so inelegant and antiquated. You do it with food as well, this coming from the country that gave us "cheese" in a can.
Riddle me this: why are so many US makers in trouble whilst everyone is buying Japanese or European cars? Might it possibly be because people want to buy them?
At least our cars can go around a corner without leaving 5,000 miles worth of rubber on the road ! :-)
Just give me an engine, 4 tires and a steering wheel.
Thanks
That seems a little steep. Porches must make their drivers very drowsy.
This was an offer in an Audi Q5 we had built-to-order here in Switzerland. We put the order through three or four months ago for delivery in March. I put every safety feature possible in the car but the dealer told me not to keep this one because everyone ends up eventually turning it off.
How long will it be before someone dies because a bug in the software caused their car to steer unexpectedly into something, or causing the driver to overcompensate (telling the computer "NO!"), causing a crash?
This has disaster written all over it.
It won't stop the Al Gores from driving even more offensive vehicles which have the proper-sized engine blocks. It reduces choice for the rest of us that live with environmentalists' overkill demands.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Maybe this kind of technology can save a few lives.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
You mean proper sized engine blocks like the 2.0L twin turbo that makes more torque at lower engine speed, and more power than most of the other engines in the lineup, and providing better fuel economy to boot?
About 70% of the roads here in Puerto Rico have no lane marks due to lack of maintenance. How would that system work? Or will it indicate it cannot engage in such conditions?
from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lane_departure_warning_system
snippets:
In 2007 Infiniti offered a newer version of this feature, which it called the Lane Departure Prevention (LDP) system. This feature utilizes the vehicle stability control system to help assist the driver maintain lane position by applying gentle brake pressure on the appropriate wheels.
In 2004, Toyota added a Lane Keeping Assist feature to the Crown Majesta which can apply a small counter-steering force to aid in keeping the vehicle in its lane.
2003: Honda launched its Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS) on the Inspire.[13][14] It provides up to 80% of steering torque to keep the car in its lane on the highway.
One accident, one BIG lawsuit. No more Ford Motor Company.
"it will also steer the car back into the right lane"... Finally, I can catch a nap on those long drives.
Versus Europe and Asia, you get more car in the US, and it is built for the wide open spaces that frustrate golfcarts.
What is it with Europe and their hate on ordinary people having Detroit-like power under the hood, up to the point where people let V8 behemoths rot in garages for fear of taxes?
US cars are hardly inelegant or antiquated - they just weren't built with austerity, but built with pride. You don't see General Motors/Chrysler/Ford cars being blown up by terrorists; you see them use cheap-as-shit Toyotas, Hyundais, Mitsubishis, Peugeots, and other non-US cars that are made with no attention to quality or design.
The US made the mistake of allowing transplants in the door during the days of import quotas in the 1980's. That, and we haven't protected our manufacturers enough to keep US cars that are truly built with only a US audience in mind.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
How about after say 3 times the car has to enable this feature, it removes all control from the driver, keeps their belt buckled, and drives them to the nearest 12-hr Driving Course for a re-upper.
Now people can drive drunk and the car will offer a good disguise! AWESOME?!
Nah.
At oil change time when you go to turn into the Mr. Lube the steering wheel resists, the doors and windows lock, the radio turns to a Ford oil change commercial and you're driven to the nearest Ford dealership
Been there, done that, paid for the T-shirt
and didn't get it
To the death !!
it's not difficult to change lanes, nor to stay in one lane. that's, quite frankly, the easiest part of driving. I don't need help. And keeping me between lines when the road ignores the lines -- construction zones, test paint strips, icons, etc. -- is a terrible idea.
but more than anything else, why should I avoid driving drowsy when my car can help me out? you'll get more drowsy drivers, and more drunk drivers, than ever before.
you'll also have a whole host of drivers blaming a crash on this feature, whether or not it's true.
you've just taken both responsibilty and accountability away from the driver, and put it into something that can't be held accountable, and doesn't have a drivers licence. congrats.
but hey, here's the truth. this is EXACTLY like letting your 8-year old child steer from the passenger seat, while on a long highway drive. it's very dangerous and very illegal. not because your child can't stay between the lines. because the driver is the driver.
Wow, you actually posted that utter crap not as an AC?
Every. Single. Word you posted is trash. But if you are that dumb then an American shit pile IS for you!
What is supposedly gained in the part sharing is lost in the cars becoming bland and un-American - where you get told that you are not worthy of a car from your own country.
It'd be fine if you could just order a foreign market car, while the US keeps its home market vehicles large, US-sized, powered and priced for the masses.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Also I'd like to request a 'snooze bar' feature, sometimes I like to get a few more minutes sleep before getting off the highway.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
Buick has been hollowed out and made into something un-American.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
It's a nice feature and all, but it seems to be more of a distraction from the lack of a proper, US-sized engine block under the hood than anything else.
What, sheer mass makes an engine "better"? I'll put my EcoBoost V6 up against the old 385 V8 Big Block, just because it's about 2/3 the weight for the same HP. And that thing just purrs like a happy kitten. A finely tuned happy kitten.
Of course the car it's wrapped in still comes in at over 2 tons. :-( Still, it gets better than twice the mileage of the old land whales that used to have the 385 (when I'm not driving it like I stole it.) Yes, I'd rather have it in a Mustang than a Taurus, but that wasn't an option for us.
John
US automakers, set to their own devices, produced SUVs and muscle cars, and pretty much crap otherwise.
When oil was suddenly $100 per barrell, they couldn't sell them. Not very far sighted.
Your "Everything's bigger in Texas" attitude is just a bunch of "rah rah rah" and very little pragmatism or business sense (nor general empathy or social awareness).
While I do enjoy my sporty car, it's 2.0L flat-4 and the new models produce almost 240hp. It's not exactly a gas hog, and can accelerate at almost uncomfortable speed. I just don't understand why your average commuter even wants 300-500hp under the hood. That seems both dangerous and wasteful.
It's not that I don't agree that it's your right to be both dangerous and wasteful, but I believe you should pay dearly for doing so, so that the rest of us who are sensible don't have to clean up after you.
Personally, I'd prefer the drowsy types and the like to be evolutionary selected away.
bjd
Might be grating for your ears to hear that, Anonymous Coward, but if someone is willing to rig a car to blow up, the car isn't something that has any value to it. This usually means you have cars like those made from Japanese, Korean and austerity-minded European designs. Who's going to miss that golfcart when there are tons of others just as bad?
On the other hand, US cars don't have such affliction for having some actual quality and attention to detail not given to cars for developing nation markets.
Japan had its chance in the 1980's to overtake the US in large-car production. Once it went in the keicar/speed-limiter-by-gentleman's-agreement direction, it was forever lost.
Korea just chops up whatever designs are trendy and puts them in a legally-friendly-but-blatant copy of a package.
China just takes your designs.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
You, sir, have trolled handsomely. Well done! They actually went for it!
-
As long as the system also alerts you when the system is OFF. Otherwise you may think no alarm and no correction means you are fine when in fact the system has disengaged for some reason (faded lane markings, snow, etc.)
I'd just like to know how hard the AI will fight if it misinterprets a driver's intentional lane change.
You suck at driving. You're absolutely nowhere near the level of driving skill that you think you're at. Not even close.
I, for one, welcome the day when cars drive themselves, because the vast majority of drivers are idiots. Idiots who think they know better, which is the worst kind of idiot.
Yeah, and more megapixels makes for a better camera!
Invaders must die
We're sorry that the average American can't afford a 350hp V8 penis compensator under the hood any more. Complaints can be filed with OPEC to your right.
Risk compensation? Might not solve much.
I just don't care for Eurotrash that's built on the assumption that people don't drive.
I hope they mean "correct" (or "current") lane.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Is a drunk drivers wish come true.
Have gnu, will travel.
This has been done before, in aviation. Commercial aircraft use
a "stick shaker" which forcibly shakes the controls to warn the
pilots of an impending stall.
Despite this, planes have crashed in classic stall / spin accidents.
Installing such warning devices in cars might prevent a few accidents,
but the overwhelming effect of such devices will be to encourage drivers
to pay even less attention than they pay now, because they will expect
the car to "warn" them.
The scenario depicted in "Idicracy" ( the basic plot of which was derived
from a short story called "The Marching Morons" ) is coming true.
US cars are hardly inelegant or antiquated - they just weren't built with austerity, but built with pride.
Aye, I suppose it's a matter of taste: some people value their lives, others like driving around in four-wheeled coffins and call that pride.. ;)
It's going to have a more important function: Keeping drivers that are Texting (or otherwise distracted with their hand-held electronic devices) from wandering too much.
The use of hand-held devices by a driver has been made illegal in so many states already, and yet, people will simply keep their device in their lap, or lower than the dash, so as to keep it out of sight of the police.The thinking is: so long as the cops don't see the device in use, they can still get away with it.
Lane-wandering, and erratic driving are what universally alerts police to such use. The call logs and text history is more than enough to issue a ticket for the device usage in such cases. If the logs and history are blank, they can still issue a 'careless driving' ticket.
All in all, the lane departure warning system is aimed more at distracted drivers than drowsy ones. Just another crutch to allow already unsafe drivers to think they are more in control, and open a margin even wider for them to abuse their Privilege of sharing the highways with the rest of us ;)
Normally a drunk or drowsy person would run off the road and either be jolted awake by the rumble strips or hit a tree/guardrail/ditch/etc. It sounds morbid, but they are the only ones injured or killed.
This new system defeats the purpose of the rumble strips by preventing your from getting to them and keeps you on the road until you hit someone else. It turns a dangerous, incapacitated driver's vehicle into a guided missile. This is a very bad thing. I'm not at all convinced the a vibrating steering wheel will wake them up... Rumble strips violently rock the whole car and make a loud, disturbing noise.
US automakers, set to their own devices, produced SUVs and muscle cars, and pretty much crap otherwise.
That says US automakers specialize in large cars meant for the mass market - and should be allowed to make them as such without environmental restrictions. That's why they're not doing so well - they're being forced by regulation to do something that is not part of Detroit's DNA.
It'd just be fine if one did not have to raid the luxury tier just to get anything greater than 4+turbo. I'm not asking for an exotic V10 or V12.
As for what I have, it's a 215HP Short North V6 on a 3600lb body. No turbocharger present - it'd do more harm than good on the already-underpowered 4T65-E that it is mated to.
All I'm wanting to see is that US-sized/powered vehicles remain available to the masses, not something reserved for the nomenklatura.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
No-one's relying on the GP's expertise to keep them safe while barreling down the road in a tin box at 70mph.
I'm a Ron Paul devotee of individual liberty, and as far as I'm concerned that shd start the moment I leave my house!
I have to wonder whether he will join me in denouncing traffic laws in the name of individual liberties.
Like, there's nothing in the Constitution (or Bible, come to think of it) about stuff like stop signs, traffic lights, driving lanes, signaling, etc.
Shouldn't we all have the right to go out and drive any way, wherever, and whenever we want? (Acknowledged that some of us already seem to do that!)
I mean, it's our liberties at stake here, and that should start as soon as we get out of the house! This is fundamental.
No?
A
Nah, it will just encourage people to perform non-driving tasks while behind the wheel, such as apply eye makeup, shave, eat breakfast, text, look at other people in car while talking, sleep, and so forth.
Another 10 years and we won't even have to know HOW to drive! Unless, you know.. an accident happens. But at least we can sue the auto manufacturers for that then.
I would like to see the car makers install a mechanical arm that, when drifting across lanes, would snatch the cell phone from the drivers hands and shove it up their asses.
I value mine enough to put plenty of Detroit metal between me and the next person - and have enough engine to not need to use it. If anything, it's the austerity-minded compact that's likely to become a coffin - whether it gets blown off a bridge by a strong breeze or compacted by collision.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The submitter injected unneeded worry. According to Ford via USAToday: "The driver can overcome assistance and vibration at any time by turning the steering wheel, accelerating or braking" The article also uses the word "nudge" in reference to the control input, so I read all this to mean the system won't be fighting drivers. See: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/12/ford-says-fusion-sedan-will-get-lane-departure-system/1
How about a routine that vibrates the steering wheel until you get out of the passing lane?
Imagination drew in bold strokes, instantly serving hopes and fears, while knowledge advanced by slow increments...
is to force people to always leave at least 3 car lengths between themselves and the car in front of them on the freeway, including onramps and exits. (metering lights effectively create this situation, and they do work). This way, people could always merge, change lanes, etc. Once a merge or lane change was accomplished, another merge or lane change by the same car should not be allowed until proper distance is established from the car in front again. If the police would simply enforce this one law ruthlessly, road conditions would improve dramatically. The preponderant reason for traffic jams is people not letting others merge or execute needed maneuvers, and people making sudden lane changes, both of which cause sudden braking, which is amplified backwards through traffic. Smooth driving, even under severely packed conditions, would alleviate almost all traffic jams.
Currently hooked on AMP
So instead of scraping against the median or drifting off the road when you’re drowsy, you and your car will keep driving in the lane until a sharp bend and have a worse crash?
This is a joke right? I accept the inevitable whooshes if it is. Please say it is.
19/27 for a largish car is not a problem to be solved by removing such cars from the mass market domain and putting it in the nomenklatura one.
Build the landwhale right, and efficiency still can be built in. Take away the regulations like CAFE, and such cars can be made available to mere mortals. Without block-and-transmission-killing [turbo|super]chargers, or other cheats around the proper solution of displacement.
The first thing I'd do to an EcoBoost car is rip out the drivetrain and replace it with one that isn't as environmentally impaired. That's if it's not a Eurotrash platform that has no provision for something larger than an I4.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Until the car's systems are ready and COMPETENT to take full control of my car, and 100% of driving responsibilities, in short, until it's a better driver than I AM, (which won't be for an awfully long goddamned time, the way things look now,) I don't want or need, (nor will I accept) a car of any kind that has the ability to seize control of the FUCKING STEERING. No, thank you. You can keep that shit.
What if you're driving somewhere where lane lines have been drawn erroneously, or where an old traffic configuration (due to roadwork in one set of lanes) would divert (and did, say... last week) divert traffic off the freeway and across a median? This week, work done, there are concrete barriers there.
I've seen this myself, where a set of lane lines crudely (and incompletely) painted over would have taken anyone dumb enough to follow them right into some giant slabs of concrete.
I welcome the idea of self-driving cars, but the computer still has a LONG way to go before it can do MY job. If the world were ideal, with no possible unexpected situations, then sure... but the world is not ideal, stuff comes up every now and then, and I still haven't seen anything indicating computers can drive. Autopilot is a far cry from auto-driver.
I've never owned an American car, and I've happily driven my various dinky little cars the full length of I-10 and most of I-5. I really don't get this love of the giant cars. A car is just transportation, for those trips in the range where bicycles and airplanes don't work so well.
They're already dead as a US car company.
How can they die again?
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
If the system malfunctions I can't sue anybody, because it was provided "AS-IS" and "WITHOUT WARRANTY" or "FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE".
I have to assume that the sue-happy culture of the USA is probably part of the reason why this system isn't already being sold on a mainstream vehicle in North America. (I own a 1.5-year-old vehicle with a very similar system)
Slightly off-topic: After growing up in the USA, then spending some time living in Europe, I've often been shocked by some of the seemingly dangerous things that are allowed here, compared to the USA. I guess they expect people to exhibit some common sense here, rather than go crying to the courts when didn't make it all-but-impossible for them to injure themselves...
some cloverleafs even with C/D lanes back up bad at times at least the C/D keep the backup off of the main lanes. But flyovers get rid of cross traffic slowing stuff down.
As if posting as TheGratefulNet is taking some sort of responsibility for your own posts?
Sorry but I find all this computer controlled garbage kinda dangerous. One glitch and you die. It's gotten to the point where you no longer have to learn how to drive, you just learn how to point it.
Wuddooeyeno? IITYWYBMAD? Like nuts? eclecticallyincorrect.com
The guys that really know cars don't agree with you. When Motor Trend tested the 2011 Ford F-150 Pickups "the idea was to see whether it makes more sense for buyers to get the twin-turbo V-6 or the 5.0-liter V-8" (their quote). Continuing they said, "From the dyno and track results, the EcoBoost's performance data makes it a better rival for the 6.2 (liter V-8). The EcoBoost F-150 was fastest of the test..." The story is at http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/trucks/1110_2011_ford_f_150_full_line_test/viewall.html. I've owned a variety of big block and factory turbocharged cars including the real good ones -- 427 'Vette, 6.6 Liter Trans Am, 455 Stage 1 Buick, 3.8 liter Buick Turbo-Regal, GMC Syclone 4.3 liter turbo V-6, Volvo 2.3 liter turbo I-5. The turbo cars were better all around performers than the big blocks -- just as fast and better in every other category. One reason is that with a small, lightweight engine the car can be lighter and better balanced. In a direct comparison, I had a hot-rodder friend who owned the following two cars -- '69 Camaro with a transplanted 427 (L88 427 -- the real factory race engine in the late 60's, 7 liters for the metric oriented reader) and an '86 Buick Regal T-Type with the turbocharged 3.8 liter V6. After some garage tweaks the Regal ran a faster 1/4 mile at the dragstrip than the Camaro, both in the 11's as I recall. And I remember guys breaking rods racing naturally aspirated V-8 cars all the time.
Am I the only one that thinks this is a really fucking bad idea?!
ilovegeorgebush
The first time it fails to automatically correct, or for whatever reason there is a car crash, you can expect lawsuits plenty. Instead of taking PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, we rely on technology, or try to LOL.
...Like, there's nothing in the Constitution (or Bible, come to think of it) about stuff like stop signs, traffic lights, driving lanes, signaling, etc...
Most, if not all, of these laws are created by states and local communities. The Federal government has little to do with traffic laws.
This would, no doubt, be quite annoying to put up with in the many "relaned" construction zones that pop up here in Maine every Spring.
100,000 crashes every year, leading to 1,500 deaths, and 71,000 injuries.
Call me crazy but those numbers seem pretty good in terms of a significant number of crashes with no injuries. Out of the 100,000 crashes, say 50% involve at least two cars (the others 50,000 drivers are running into non-car objects such as trees, guard rails, etc), so that would mean that there are at least 150,000 cars involved in the 100,000 crashes they report. Out of 150,000 crashes, you have 72,500 injuries (i'm counting death as a form of injury), so that means that you have a better than 50% chance of coming out of this type of accident injury free, which I found pretty surprising.
I'm surprised that I do not see a link to the RISKS article about how a motorist was trapped in a traffic circle for 14 hours yet.
The technology in the RISKS entry was a bit more advanced (lane occupation detection) than what seems to be described in this article.
(And if someone cannot it figure out from the date, the RISKS entry was an April fool's joke; but a lot of people took it seriously at the time.)
"Proper, US-sized engine blocks" aren't selling well,
There seem to be plenty of Mustangs, Camaros, Challengers, and non-work V8 trucks on the road where I am.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
That's only because you drive them like pussies. :P
Unless you're Spanish. Or Italian.
Don't worry I over heard one of my co workers complaining that they backed into something because their beeper wasn't working. By beeper they meant the reverse collision detector because they apparently thought that having one of those meant you didn't need to look behind you when going in reverse. You can try to make a better device but as a society we will create better idiots.
Time to offend someone
I assume that you mean a proper sized engine to the massive vehicle. By most Americans' standard I have a car with a small V8 engine (4.4L) while others have V8 engines that are at least 5.0 liters and as high as 8 liters in cars. People tend to buy the largest most powerful car they can afford unless they are trying to make a statement.
Time to offend someone
I dunno what people you know, but most Americans I know just want some sort of generic reliable commuter car, neither anything particularly powerful nor overtly small/"green"/whatever. Hence the popularity of Honda Civics and similar cars.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
The Federal government has little to do with traffic laws.
If you think the Congress's post roads power doesn't affect local traffic laws, then explain why local restaurants that host live bands and serve alcohol won't let in 18 to 20 year olds.
Kirk: [Explaining Spock's odd behavior] Oh, him? He's harmless. Part of the free speech movement at Berkeley in the sixties. I think he did a little too much LDS.
Watch out Mormons. A new LDS is in town.
I really don't get this love of the giant cars.
It is based on visions of un-congested roads, plentiful parking and cheap gas. That is not reality for most drivers who find driving an unwieldy gas guzzling behemoth is an unhappy burden.
I'm sorry, i was deafened by your ignorance towards reality. I'll ignore your first paragraph since it just seemed like some kind of attempted patriotism or something. The others are just in-your-face wrong. Japanese cars DID overtake american "large car" production, considering there's little to no large cars sold in todays market outside of midsize sedans in the $50K+ range such as Infinity, Lexus, BMW, etc. :(
The rest just seems like you're attempting to simplify everything into country status when everything is company-based. The sad thing is, Korean cars are better in quality than the American cars of the same variety
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
More shitty technology that can break and will cost hundreds (thousands?) to repair that are put in cars to save idiotic drivers from themselves.
How about we just make getting a fucking driver's license harder than not shitting yourself so we can get these fucking gremlins off the road in the first place?
Stick to computers, because your knowledge of cars is visibly non-existant.
existEnt. Damn it.
Nothing to be too sorry about -- a new 2012 Mustang with a 305hp V6 lists for $22,310 and is EPA rated at 31 mpg for highway fuel economy -- actually quite affordable, not that any compensation is necessary.
Have you driven a modern vehicle in a comparable class to that of the old american cars? A modern american compact car is better in every way to the ones from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s the same holds true for all other classes as well. They all put out more power, get better gas mileage, handle better, put out less pollution, last longer, better acceleration, higher top speed, and have more of the creature comforts. About the only thing I hear people complain about is the lack of style, when compared to cars from the 50s or 60s, and the difficulty of working on them. Maybe this will help you understand engine sizes for your proper US-sized blocks:
8.2 Liter = 500 cu in (in 1970 this engine first production year it produced 400 hp and in its final year of production 1976 produced 190 hp)
6.6 Liter = 400 cu in
7.0 Liter = 425 cu in
7.5 Liter = 455 cu in
5.0 Liter = Ford 302 cu in or GM 305 cu in
5.3 Liter = 327 cu in
5.7 Liter = 350 cu in
7 Liter = 427 cu in
3.8 Liter = 231 cu in
3.7 Liter = 225 cu in
3.0 Liter = 181 cu in
4.3 Liter = 261 cu in
4.1 Liter = 250 cu in
4.8 Liter = 292 cu in
4.0 Liter = 242 cu in
These are all actual historic 6 and 8 cylinder engines that were produced by US manufactures. Now granted these displacements are large by European standards but then the US cars that we made at the time were land yachts. Technology has come a long way since then and now in a lot of applications where a large V8 was needed a smaller V6 works and produces as much or more power as the old V8. If one looks at the smog motors of the late 70s and early 80s it is even possible for a modern small turbo charged 4 banger to put out more power than the old V8.
Time to offend someone
No encouragement is necessary with that. Whether or not this is put into implementation, it occurs readily.
It's not like someone is going to be like "oh gee, I can just take my hands off the wheel as the car bounces like a ping pong ball in my lane.".
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I have misgivings about these intermediate stops between manual driving and automatic driving. Fully automatic driving is starting to work well. But the vehicles which do that, from the DARPA Grand Challenge and later, have enough sensing to have a clear model of obstacles around them. Those have vision, LIDAR, and radar systems, and dynamic planners working out a path with good road surface and clear of obstacles.
One camera looking forward can't do that. Just sensing lane departure isn't enough to stay in lane, especially when lane markings are ambiguous. Any car with this should have millimeter radar anti-collision as well.
That's the first thing that I thought of. If traffic permits, I tend to make slow almost leisurely lane changes, especially if the weather is dicey or if I see something far enough ahead that I need to avoid without having to swerve making some zipping into another lane. How quickly am I going to have to change lanes to avoid fighting some computer alogorithm? Frankly, this sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen the first time the onboard computer steers the car back into a lane only to have it rear-end a slow moving car -- that the driver was slowly changing lanes to avoid -- and someone gets killed. Yeah, the article says that the computer doesn't get involved if the driver uses a signal when changing lanes but that ignores the fact that a lot of drivers don't use the signals if there's no one nearby that would notice the signal. It might be the law but that doesn't mean we need the car enforcing it.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Bitch please, Nissan did this nearly 12 (yes twelve) years ago!
And Ford is basically the last one left without it.
Of course, if you act all Microsoftey "not invented here"-like, then this is totally new and revolutionary!
There are three dimensions when driving - forward, sideways and time.
You just move sideways 1/2 a car length immediately, and 1/2 a car length later. Hopefully the other guy will have backed off, or you may both wind up dead.
Welcome to the jungle.
"People tend to buy the largest most powerful car they can afford unless they are trying to make a statement"
That's funny, I think you have it backwards. People tend to buy the smallest cheapest car that meets their transportation needs, unless they are trying to make a statement. I see a whole lot more civics and corrollas and mazda 3s on the road than I see chrysler 300s. There are always exceptions, like my neighboor who bought a ginormous F350 to commute to work in every day, because once a year he tows his boat from the marina to the storage lot.
This will only further encourage drivers to fiddle with the radio, text, eat messy food, window shop etc etc.
It will be a cold day in hell before I drive a car that would automatically correct for lane drift. I really hate any fucking machine that thinks it knows my intention. If I ever bought a car that had that feature, you can be assured that it would be disconnected or disabled before I drove it more than the distance from the dealer to my house.
Why is it that most of the people that I encounter seem to have been shat from the Sphincter of Mediocrity?
Or for that matter car companies like Ford trying to sell cars to "Help! my wife/husband cannot drive dept". Here is an example just two days ago a friend bought a brand new Lexus with auto-parking and his wife crashed it!
All cows eat grass!
What could possibly go wrong?
I have no problem with it beeping at people but I wouldn't feel comfortable with it grabbing the wheel. On a fast freeway with heavy traffic I really don't need some stupid computer second guessing my decisions. If I'm so drowsy that that is an issue then I really shouldn't be on the road. So instead, if they have the stones... I'd rather have the car beep at me then inform me the engine will be turned off in X minutes/seconds and then allow me to pull over while I take a nap for 30 minutes. Where upon the car will let me drive again.
Will they do that? No... because drivers wouldn't put up with it. But I see no difference really. No AI is touching the wheel without my permission. And no, buying a car with this feature does not constitute unrestricted authorization to second guess my driving.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
You just know that these figures have been massively inflates, but let's take them at face value and do some some math:
In the USA people drive 3 trillion miles per year, 100,000 accidents, so there is one relevant accident per 30 million miles driven. One accident for every 10,000 times you drive across the entire country. Here, we clearly have a serious problem.
There are 135 million vehicles on the road, and these accidents supposedly cost $12.5 billion per year, so it would be worth spending as much as $92 per vehicle. If these systems prevent all such accidents and create no new ones.
As an earlier poster mentions, this system is likely to cause accidents all its own - for example, when you are deliberately making a gentle lane change, the system fights you for it, and you (or the system) overreact.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Just limit the force feedback to the steering wheel to a power which can be easily overcome by a willing driver. There is a significant difference in force which you can - and will - apply in a stress situation in comparison to falling asleep
I once followed a course on safety in aviation, where the teacher suggested a technical measure to improve road safety: put a sharp rod on the steering wheel, pointing directly at the chest of the driver. Simple, cheap and depending on your exact goal, probably very efficient....
I can text with both hands off the wheel and steer with my feet.
You could do what we do here in Oz. They paint ripple strips down the side and middle of the roads. If your car wheel drifts onto it you get a bum tingling vibration through the vehicle to get your attention. Works a treat, annoys the wife and makes the kids laugh to boot!
I suspect the same people that had their hand in Ford Sync (Microsoft & their bedfellows) also contributed to this scary new feature. So now that's TWO reasons why I won't sit in a Ford with the engine running.
If I didn't have absolutely NOTHING to do, I wouldn't be here.
Come to think of it, why do we as a society have so much pressure on people that they even NEED to try doing this crap while driving?
Has the rat race of one upping our fellow citizens driven us to this extreme?
Sadly this doesn't sound all that humorous.
Next companies will start requiring this on their employee's cars to keep them from moonlighting.
the lack of a proper, US-sized engine block under the hood
What, you mean a wheezy obsolete 4.6 litre petrol engine that is comfortably outperformed by a modern diesel less than half the size? Seriously, 200bhp from nearly 5 litres - did you forget to plug half the injectors in or something?
It's great that you're making such huge advances in automotive technology. Incidentally, have you seen the the Citroen C5 from seven years ago that had this as part of the standard base-level fit?
I wonder what amazing things Ford will introduce in 2012? Suspension that works? Engines that deliver enough power to pull you out of bed?
I hang around with a lot of what are typical gear head types and my neighborhood is filled with people near the end of their careers. It is a blue collier neighborhood but since everyone saved and worked hard they have the big powerful vehicles. My next door neighbor has a 3/4 ton Chevy pickup and his wife has a Suburban, across the street one of the neighbors has a newer Lexus LS, the other one still has his work van (Ford E350) as he is semi retired but still does some work while his wife has a Mercedes E class, the neighbor on the other side of me has 2 Explorers and also has one of the recent reincarnations of the Fort Thunderbird. The economic reality that I see is that people do drive smaller cars like mazada 3s, civics, corollas, and others but if they could afford it they would be driving something larger and/or more powerful like a proper muscle car, sports car, or a large truck/SUV. The fact that they aren't is because they also have to keep up with everyone else in the neighborhood by having all the toys and everything is new every 5 years. So they just end up pissing away all their money. If people really did buy only the bare minimum they needed then why do I see so many SUVs and large vehicles when a 4 door compact car is all that is really needed.
Time to offend someone
You can already buy this system with a 2011 Ford Focus here in Germany. Strange that Ford has this on the european market, yet only announces the availability for it's home market for this year.
When Motor Trend tested the 2011 Ford F-150 Pickups "the idea was to see whether it makes more sense for buyers to get the twin-turbo V-6 or the 5.0-liter V-8" (their quote). Continuing they said, "From the dyno and track results, the EcoBoost's performance data makes it a better rival for the 6.2 (liter V-8). The EcoBoost F-150 was fastest of the test..."
Except that it still read like it was a mixed bag - where the V-6 still was deficient if you wanted to get anything from it. Shoving more air through won't make up for what those extra cylinders will do.
I've owned a variety of big block and factory turbocharged cars including the real good ones -- 427 'Vette, 6.6 Liter Trans Am, 455 Stage 1 Buick, 3.8 liter Buick Turbo-Regal, GMC Syclone 4.3 liter turbo V-6, Volvo 2.3 liter turbo I-5. The turbo cars were better all around performers than the big blocks -- just as fast and better in every other category. One reason is that with a small, lightweight engine the car can be lighter and better balanced. In a direct comparison, I had a hot-rodder friend who owned the following two cars -- '69 Camaro with a transplanted 427 (L88 427 -- the real factory race engine in the late 60's, 7 liters for the metric oriented reader) and an '86 Buick Regal T-Type with the turbocharged 3.8 liter V6. After some garage tweaks the Regal ran a faster 1/4 mile at the dragstrip than the Camaro, both in the 11's as I recall. And I remember guys breaking rods racing naturally aspirated V-8 cars all the time.
That was before the whole rush by manufacturers to use turbochargers as a cylinder substitute, not an engine complement. Those blocks were fine without them as opposed to the cylinder cut+turbo that happens in the name of environmentalism.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
I will concede that people who drive the really powerful or large vehicles are also making a statement I still stand by my statement when applied to people who buy cars like the smart car, Prius, or Insight, Leaf, or Volt. I also have a buddy who has a F350 (his might be bigger) because he "needs" it for towing his boat and for going hunting. It is the quad or crew cab (which one is the big cab where the rear doors are the same size as the front one) long box off road Eddie Bauer edition. His boat rides on a single axle trailer and is only slightly larger than another friend's boat which gets towed with a Nissan Versa (probably too small but still can get the job done). As far as hunting he refuses to take it off paved roads because it might damage the paint. Most people are stretched so thin that they can't afford a Chrysler 300 so they end up buying a Civic instead. I drive one of the nicer cars at work but paid less for it than almost everyone else's vehicles because I don't spend every dime I earn and am willing to buy a used vehicle instead of a new one. In the 5 years I have been at my current job I have had the same vehicle (the previous was was totaled out just before I started) yet some of my coworkers are on their 3rd vehicle in that same time period.
Time to offend someone
Either have the automation drive the car itself, or get it out of the way. If I wanted a goddamn backseat driver, I'd volunteer to drive senior citizens around.
Assistive control is BigBrotha... Active control would keep the vehicle in a lane like cruise control keeps a vehicle at a speed.
Reasonable answer -- I was a bit harsh in my original reply but still pretty much disagree. Two points -- philosophically I like some sort of intake charge compression (turbo or supercharging) because of a basic imbalance in the way a reciprocating engine works -- you have hundreds of psi of exhaust pressure (pushed by the piston) to empty the cylinder but only atmospheric pressure (15 psi) minus throttle losses to fill it on each stroke -- that's why intake valves are always bigger than exhaust valves. Also with a turbo you are able to capture some of the waste heat in the exhaust stream increasing the basic thermodynamic efficiency of the engine. On the whole environmentalism issue -- you have to admit that the engines of 2012 are more powerful and drivable than the best engines of the glory days of the 60's, while being almost infinitely cleaner and considerably more efficient. Of course this is all technology driven but a bunch of that technology was forced by environmental requirements. Since about 1992 (when the new Chevy 5.7 liter LT-1 came out) the car makers have shown we can have it all -- clean, efficient engines and more power than than you can use on the street. This drive to even smaller displacements is just along the same trend as technology gets even better.
You sir, just got trolled.
The Prius already has "Lane Assist", and I know the 2011 model is a mid-sized car, because I'm 6'2" and there is plenty of headroom, it seats five, and I was able to fit an over 6 foot tall Christmas tree in it and close the back door(not the at same same time as seating five, obviously I had to fold the back seat down). Plus, the insurance company lists it as a mid-size car.
So, unless they are saying the Prius is a luxury car, the Fusion is not the first.
I'd love to see how this works on a snow-covered road. Or for that matter a road that's perpetually damaged from ice and the harsh winters. It's really difficult for me (and other drivers) to see the lines on some of the roads. There's one spot on the interstate near where I live where it's extremely common for people unfamiliar with the area to pick the wrong line to follow and force cars off the road. I'd imagine the steering will would just vibrate constantly...
Many slight changes from one lane to another in the UK are not supposed to be signalled according to my driving and IAM instructors. Moving out to pass a bus that is offloading / loading should not be signalled as an example. How would this car deal with that ?
Wonder how this technology will work during à major snowstorm with high winds and driving on 6 inches on snow here in Québec.
Imagine you are driving down the highway with this thing and a deer jumps into your lane. The lane next to you is empty. You have to veer around it and don't exactly have time for a turn signal. Will this thing actually stop you from changing lanes and force you to hit the deer in this case?
This feature has been available for years in mid-priced cars. I bought an inexpensive Prius two years ago with Toyota's "Lane Keep Assist" option -- pretty much the same thing. A camera mounted to the rear-view mirror monitors the white lines on the road & if the car drifts across a line (unless a turn signal is use or the lane switch is fast enough to suggest a deliberate act), an alarm sounds and the car nudges itself back into the original lane. Is this yet another example of Slashdot allowing an ignorant posting through because the editors know less about a technology than the poster (whose question is pretty clueless btw -- anybody who's bought a car with feature can tell you that the driver can always override the automated steering)? Or does the newsworthines derive from the fact that Ford has adopted this feature? In either case, thank you Slashdot for wasting everybody's time.
Interesting side note: there's been talk in Congress (as reported in even, um, the AARP Journal) for the last year about making this a mandatory feature of all new cars starting mid-decade. That's how old this news is, guys.
Mercedes Benz have vehicles which do this already, so... this begs the question as to what exactly is so revolutionary about this?
Your honor, I have the (*&^ vendor spiffy Lane departure system and it
would be impossible for the officer to follow me and make
any assertion about my lane tracking ability following as I just let it
keep me between the lines. I also use cruse control so speed changes
are also a non issue for any officer following me.
I move to dismiss this arrest because there is no justified reason
to pull me over and search my person and vehicle. Further I am
a bodacious beautiful blond and have been pulled over by this
bad boy a number of times just so he can stare down my shirt.
With all the cameras and sensors for parking it is
a simple matter of software to trigger some insane
driver cut me off logic.
Turn on the turn signal the trailing speed delta and location
for the previous 30 seconds (800 yards) would be logged
and merged with additional data to the point where the
signal was turned off or the lane change completed.
The department of homeland safety would download the
data from all vehicles involved in accidents and the
abusers prosecuted as terrorists. Since 32,000 auto
deaths were recorded in 2010 this is clearly a threat
with a magnitude fully justifying the attention. Especially
given the large percentage of women and children involved.
The root cause of course is building codes that drive families
far from industrial and office work places.
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. Mark Twain.
Having learned its lesson early on, Ford has continued to innovate and respond to the needs of its customers. In 1993, the company made it first foray into a more environmentally friendly ethanol-burning vehicle. In 1997 it started making taxicabs that run on natural gas. Recently a survey by the Automobile Association of America approximated that 32 percent of drivers have driven when they were too tired to keep their eyes open. A previous study estimates that 16.5 percent of deadly accidents are the result of tired drivers. A brand new security system from Ford hopes to address these surprising statistics. Ford Lane Keeping System to debut on 2013 Fusion. Now it remains competitive in the electric-powered vehicle market, as well as offering consumers an impressive, competitive and popular array of internal combustion cars and trucks.