FORD

BRAND TESTS THE EFFICIENCY OF THE ADAPTIVE AUTOMATIC PILOT AGAINST THE 'GHOST CONGESTIONAMENTS'
Ford has conducted a study in partnership with Vanderbilt University, a private research university in Tennessee, USA, to see if the use of adaptive autopilot can actually help reduce so-called 'ghost congestion', a chain reaction that disrupts the flow of traffic when a driver brakes for no reason - see the video below.This type of bottling is easily caused by human factors - such as when a driver enters the stream without signaling, drives distractedly, has disconnected reaction times, or brakes unnecessarily.The study, done in a closed test track of Ford, counted on 36 drivers who simulated the normal flow of traffic of a road in cars equipped with adaptive autopilot. Then they repeated the same route without using the technology, manually accelerating and braking the vehicles.The conclusion was that when vehicles are equipped with adaptive autopilot, the impact of a braking on the traffic flow is much lower. And fluidity benefits even when only one in three vehicles uses this technology.Also known as ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control), adaptive autopilot is the basis of autonomous steering systems. Through sensors, it automatically accelerates or brakes the vehicle to maintain the selected speed according to the traffic flow, without the need for driver intervention.

Ford has continuously improved this technology and recently introduced the 'stop and go' feature, which allows the car to resume the journey after staying up to 3 seconds off. In previous systems, when the car for the autopilot is turned off and needs to be reactivated to re-operate. This innovation is already available in Brazil in the Fusion and Edge models."We believe that intelligent autopilot is a step in helping to reduce congestion and we encourage Ford car owners to use it in their travels," said Torsten Wey, Ford of Europe security technology manager."For years, researchers and traffic engineers have been looking for smart technologies to reduce congestion, either through vehicle-to-vehicle communication or systems that can predict the way forward," said Daniel Work, a professor of civil engineering at Vanderbilt University. "This demonstration was a unique opportunity to understand how active, commercially available driver assistance technologies can be used to positively influence the flow of traffic."



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