Electric cars have come a long way in the past decade or two, but one glaring problem remains: you have to charge the dang things. What do you do when there aren’t enough charging stations (and there aren’t)? If you’re Ford, you build a car that charges itself.
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Ford has unveiled a new concept car based on the C-Max plug-in hybrid vehicle. The concept car is called the Ford C-Max Solar Energi Concept. Ford says that the car … Continue reading
Tesla is arguably the tech world’s favorite electric vehicle manufacturer. Its CEO Elon Musk founded Tesla, SpaceX and PayPal. Now an investment trader and analyst is predicting Big Three auto … Continue reading
I’ve owned a few cars over the years that had shiny bits in the interior that would glare right in my eyes at certain times of the day. It was very irritating. Ford wants to eliminate that problem and has a slick rig that it uses to simulate the outdoors for use in testing its vehicle interiors.
Ford calls its testing center the Lighting Lab. It’s equipped with 6,000 watts of light that allows the engineers to recreate any lighting condition in the world. The dome-shaped facility has a moving light rig that can recreate conditions simulating lighting from dawn until dusk, changing angle and intensity of the lights to match the time of day.
The goal of the testing process is to reduce the glare on the interior of the car and on vehicle controls and surfaces. The Lighting Lab was used in the development of the 2015 Mustang to create gauges that are legible under all light conditions and an aluminum dash panel that doesn’t glare in driver’s eyes.
“With the Lighting Lab, we can ensure that the first time a buyer sits in the 2015 Ford Mustang, that person will be able to see the interior as the designers originally envisioned it – in the best light possible,” said Mahendra Dassanayake, Ford lighting technical specialist.
[via CarScoops]
Ford will use military-grade aluminum shielding borrowed from a US army supplier to launch the new F-150 truck with a suitably butch halo, insiders claim, bringing the much anticipated aluminum-bodied … Continue reading
Ford has announced that it will be auction off the very first retail 2015 Mustang GT for charity. The 2015 Mustang GT will hit the auction at Barrett-Jackson in January … Continue reading
While I’m not all that crazy about the idea of fully-autonomous vehicles, I do think that some of the technology which is emerging from related research and development efforts could definitely help with vehicle safety. Take for example, this new obstacle avoidance system that Ford is working on.
Ford of Europe has been working on an advanced obstacle avoidance system which uses an array of radar and ultrasonic sensors, as well as a camera to help determine if there are obstacles in the road. In the event that a slow or stopped vehicle or other object is in the vehicle’s lane, it not only can alert the driver with audible and visual cues, but it can actually brake and steer the car to avoid a collision. It only takes corrective action if it detects that the driver isn’t doing so already. The system is capable of scanning as far as 656 feet ahead, and has already been tested at speeds in excess of 38mph.
It’s definitely an intriguing technology, and if it could reduce the frequency of rear-end collisions, I would definitely consider having such a system in my car. I guess the biggest question is whether or not it’s smart enough to avoid steering you into another active lane, or worse yet into oncoming traffic. I’d have to assume that the engineers behind the project are working on those concerns as well.
The 2015 Ford Mustang was introduced back on December 5, at which time we got a fairly thorough look at the car and a batch of glamour shots. While there’s still a wait for those who want to get their hands on the real deal, “Need for Speed Rivals” players won’t need to wait, with […]
Like many auto manufacturers, Ford is hard at work on technology that will help drivers to avoid accidents on the roads. Ford unveiled its Fusion hybrid research vehicle for helping the company build more driver assist tech into their cars. Ford is also talking up some other tech it is working on including a car […]
Major car makers are now investing a lot of time and resources into autonomous or “self-driving” vehicles, even Google is toying with the idea and while commercial launches might be far off, that certainly won’t hinder research. Ford today unveiled its Fusion Hybrid autonomous vehicle which has been developed in collaboration with the University of Michigan and State Farm. This research automobile will test and advance Ford’s Blueprint for Mobility, which basically sees a future of advanced driving technologies and autonomous functionality after 2025.
Ford Unveils Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Driving Research Vehicle original content from Ubergizmo. 
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