Heard of auto-pilot in planes, but how about such technology in cars? Sounds far-fetched? Heavy traffics can be stressful for the drivers. In such situations if the car can use it brains and drive on its own while the driver relaxes? Now does that sound exciting? Well, good news is right here from Ford. Engineers at Ford have actually developed such a futuristic technology and testing is in progress.
The system has been developed which allows the driver to switch to auto-pilot mode just at the press of a button in heavy traffic situations. This auto-pilot has been named as “Traffic Jam Assist”. The technology has the capability to detect traffic jams ahead. A camera and radar fixed behind the rear view mirror senses the traffic ahead. Once a jam is detected, this would send signal to the system present in the CPU or the “black box”. A voice command would then ask the driver if he would want to activate “Traffic Jam Assist”. Now isn’t that cool?
Now isn’t your mind questioning? How would the car move in the traffic on its own? Well, when the driver activates the system, the car would first apply brakes to avoid colliding with vehicles ahead of it. Then, it would maintain a particular speed based on the traffic movement. The technology is so advanced that it can immediately respond if a speeding vehicle enters the traffic. Not just that, when the system senses that the traffic jam has ended, it picks up the speed to 30 mph and then control of the car is handed over to the driver.
Ford is planning to introduce this technology in most of its models in the next five years. A system which can brake, accelerate and handle steering on its own is definitely something car lovers would look for. The experts say that use of such systems can help move the traffic by almost 37 percent. Incredible, isn’t it?
