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RETURN TO APRIL 2004 NEWSLETTER

FORD PRESENTS NEW SAFETY CONCEPTS

Ford of Europe today provided an exclusive insight to its vision of vehicle and road safety for the future, at a special workshop in its Aachen research centre, the Ford Forschungszentrum Aachen (FFA).

Specially-invited members of the international media were given an opportunity to examine projects ranging from active and passive safety concepts to the highly-rated collision performance of the new Ford Focus C-MAX, Ford's sophisticated internal testing procedures, future navigation system projects, and Ford's widely praised Eco-Driving training program, which all contribute to improved road safety.

The workshop was held in anticipation of the World Health Organization's World Health Day, dedicated this year to the theme of road safety, which will be opened by the WHO under participation of UN representatives and the French President, Jacques Chirac on April 7th, 2004 in Paris. It will mark the beginning of a one-year global road safety campaign by the WHO.

The WHO campaign aims to increase traffic safety awareness and to promote action to prevent road injuries. The focus of both the WHO initiative and the Ford safety philosophy is on preventing road accidents and their consequences and also increasing road safety by any other means possible. Ford engineers and scientists are also carrying out research regarding the anticipated increases in the accident rates in developing and emerging nations caused by enormous increases in traffic density.

Safety has now taken a prominent place among consumer considerations when purchasing vehicles. Since safety is already given high priority by Ford, the WHO initiative provides a welcome forum to present the wide spectrum of safety-oriented research and development it carries out. Significant progress has been made regarding automotive safety in recent decades; a fact reflected by modern accident statistics. The number of accident victims in Germany, for example, has fallen continuously despite increasing traffic volumes, and similar trends can be seen in most European countries. With the mitigation of some classic accident situations this progress has allowed, researchers have now turned their attention to so-called 'secondary causes'.

Researching Real Traffic Accidents
Ford researchers are gaining a valuable insight into how the consequences of traffic accidents can be reduced or even avoided altogether in the future by studying incidents. A significant part of the success achieved by Ford in this field can be traced back to research into real traffic accidents. The information gained and conclusions reached from it have been consistently integrated into new car development. A fundamental aspect of accident research is the precise documentation generated and analysis of all significant facts involved. The course of events before and during an accident, the nature and gravity of any injuries sustained by vehicle occupants, vehicle damage and weather and traffic conditions, all play their part.

Ford supports numerous accident studies worldwide, giving it greater access than any other vehicle manufacturer to authoritative accident information data banks, the focus and content of which varies greatly from county to country. One of the most comprehensive studies is the German In-Depth Accident Study, run by the German Automotive Technology Research Union, the Forschungsvereinigung Automobiltechnik and the German Government's Federal Traffic Institute, the Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen, since 1999.

For this annual study, technicians and medical doctors thoroughly investigate around 2000 traffic accidents each year. Analysis begins at the accident scene itself, as soon after the accident has happened as possible. It is advantageous to be able to evaluate the evidence directly. Much data would be lost if the analysis of evidence and the accident circumstances were carried out retrospectively, especially in accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists.

The goal of the research is to collect data which will enable further development and refinement of test procedures and computer programs, and to validate the precision of the existing methods. The investigation of real accidents also allows the effectiveness of current safety technologies to be determined. Based on the research results it is also possible to assess which technical solutions might be best suited to improving future traffic safety. Last, but not least, the analysis serves as the basis for determining and defining new guidelines and future traffic regulations.

Examples of Passive Safety Systems in the Ford Focus C-MAX
The Focus C-MAX meets the criteria of more vehicle construction regulations requiring official certification than any other product on the market today. Ford has additionally defined its own standards, which exceed these certifications, subjecting its vehicles to an extensive testing program far more stringent than the minimum legal requirements. This is especially true regarding collision-safety.

Although the European New Car Assessment Programme also tests new vehicles in certain aspects of collision-safety and publishes the results, Ford has its own compulsory internal tests, which are prioritised in all new model development. Rear-end impacts and fuel system integrity, for example, are tested for collisions at speeds of up to 80 km/h. Furthermore, the insights gained from accident research are put into practice in Ford's development and testing procedures.

Frontal impact and the unconditional speed and precision of the airbag release and seat belt pre-tensioners are also tested by Ford to much tougher conditions than are generally demanded - this usually means higher impact speeds during testing. This results in cars that offer the best possible safety available on the road today, as demonstrated by the newest product of Ford's safety development programs - the Ford Focus C-MAX.

Development of the Ford Focus C-MAX was the first program to include child safety seat development and the integration of Isofix anchors for them directly into the seating systems of the vehicle as a central part of the vehicle development process. The Ford Focus C-MAX was also constructed especially to provide good performance in collisions involving pedestrians. This provided especially good results during testing. Development engineer Joerg Reim emphasizes however, "Our highest priority is not to achieve good test results. We are doing everything we can to successfully learn from accident research. We will have reached our goal when, in the future, Ford succeeds in protecting vehicle occupants and others involved in accidents."

It is very important that test criteria are standardized and reproducible, and should not be contradictory in detail or developmental goals. One area for potential conflict is pedestrian protection. The best safety for pedestrians is offered by soft, flexible collision surfaces on the front of a vehicle, but the front end of a vehicle must also provide a certain level of resistance to offer optimal collision performance and save the lives of vehicle occupants. Ford safety research parallels research into real accidents, to find the best possible compromise between both these relevant factors.

Active Safety Technologies
Active safety systems are intended to help avoid collisions before they happen. They support a driver by warning of potential or imminent critical situations. There are many instances where the car of the future might be able to automatically decelerate, brake or swerve, to avoid a collision or reduce and restrict its effects.

Our current understanding of the concept of rights and responsibilities limits these possibilities much more than technology does. Does a driver really feel supported when his or her car suddenly takes an active role in events and what would be the consequences if responsibility were to be deflected away from the driver? Active safety systems must be developed with the sole intention of providing the driver with meaningful support.

Examples from research by Ford underline this point. The adaptive curve light system is one: illumination provided by the headlights is adjusted according to the driving situation. The system combines sensor information from the steering column with vehicle speed data, for instance, and sends appropriate signals to small motors which turn the vehicle headlights. This allows better vision when travelling at night, whether on an unlit country road or in urban areas, improving traffic safety in city traffic - especially for pedestrians. Future systems could also include an ability to provide customised lighting for all driving situations. Optimal lighting requirements might, for example, be determined through the combination of a camera view of the route and GPS (Global Positioning System) information.

Ever-increasing traffic density has created new types of accidents. Collisions are now occurring more frequently when drivers attempt to change lanes, where the driver moves into the next lane with another vehicle in their blind spot and invisible to them. Radar systems, sensors or cameras on both sides of a vehicle, could help to eliminate the blind spot in future, or to at least provide acoustic and visual warnings for the driver. In Ford research, a warning light on the external rear view mirror has shown itself to be the most reliable warning signal so far.

A further common cause of accidents is 'micro sleep', where the driver falls asleep for a brief moment, loses control and either ploughs into the guardrail or into oncoming traffic. Lane departure warning systems offer a technical remedy for the future. A video camera registers the typical lane markings on the road and provides a warning signal if a vehicle suddenly changes course. If the vehicle is equipped with electrical power assist steering, it could gently help steer the vehicle back to the middle of the lane. The driver would, of course, maintain full control of the steering.

Accidents are frequently caused by driver distraction. If, however, a vehicle is equipped with a 'Collision Mitigation by Braking' braking assistance system, the driver can be warned acoustically and/or visually in time to allow effective braking and collision avoidance. The system is based on sensors mounted at the front of a vehicle, which constantly monitor speed and distance to the traffic ahead, and provide warnings in critical situations.

In the experience of Ford researchers, this would usually give a driver enough time to brake and avoid collision. The system also pre-pressurizes the braking systems so that the full braking power is immediately available to the driver. To function, the braking assistance system requires both the sensors mentioned above and ESP (Electronic Stability Program) installed in the vehicle. In further development, such a system could actively brake in emergency situations. Before these systems could be used in traffic, however, appropriate laws and regulations allowing them would have to be put in place.

Although arterial roads and highways are generally the safest, there are certain types of accidents that do commonly happen on them and have come to the attention of researchers. A considerable number of these happen at dusk or dawn, or when it is dark. A night vision system, based on heat sensitive cameras, could be one answer to the problem. This would allow other vehicles, cyclists or pedestrians in city traffic, to be seen in time. Certain undesirable side effects do currently reduce the quality of images delivered by standard infra-red cameras however. In addition, they are expensive and very susceptible to dirt and damage since they would have to be mounted on the outside of the vehicle. Ford is carrying out work to eliminate these shortcomings, with more powerful cameras using CCD (Charged Coupled Device) or CMOS (Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) sensors, that can be mounted behind the windscreen, being tested. Narrow frequency lasers could also be used to provide improved lighting and to filter out disturbances caused by other lighting sources, thereby eliminating many image quality problems.

Navigation with new Technology: Local Danger Reports
The Ford Research Centre in Aachen, the FFA, is developing new types of navigation and telematic systems for vehicles. The FFA Telematics team has equipped a test fleet of Ford Galaxies with prototype telematic terminals, which receive route-specific and local traffic warnings via digital radio signals.

Of particular interest in this project is the depth of detail and real time accuracy this kind of data transfer can provide. Local warnings can be displayed on the map display before a driver reaches the location of a problem. The system could, for instance, warn of a complex railway crossing ahead or of a traffic jam hidden behind a blind bend in the road. This system is currently being tested as part of the INVENT research project in Magdeburg, Germany, with the support of the German Federal Ministry for education and Research, the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung.

Lane-Keeping Technology a Stepping Stone to the Virtual Cocoon?
In the future, route prediction technology, currently being researched, could provide support for lane-keeping systems and other active safety systems. A necessary precursor to its implementation however is the further development of information-enriched digital map material. In the foreseeable future it will be possible for the safety systems of production vehicles to compare digital camera images of the traffic and road ahead with onboard digital maps and other vehicle information, such as speed and direction of travel. If the system analysis identified a potentially dangerous situation, it would warn the driver, as in, for example, preventing a driver from entering a one-way street in the wrong direction.

Further possibilities for optimised safety are offered by historical data. In practice this would mean, that regularly driven routes, such as shopping trips or the journey to and from work, would be saved on the system's memory and called up on demand. The driving prognosis for these routes would therefore be easier to calculate, since the system would already know what usually happens at any given point on the journey - for example which direction is usually taken at an intersection. With this advantage, the cameras and other systems would be better prepared to provide more effective protection for the more vulnerable road users - pedestrians and bicyclists perhaps crossing a street.

Navigation Technologies with Open System Architecture
Current telematics platforms are based on GPS positioning systems combined with wireless communication technologies. In the future, development of so-called 'open system architecture' could make it possible for drivers to select from a rich offering of information services. For example, an airbag sensor of the future might not only send an immediate report of the occurrence and location of a serious accident, but also further information such as the number of passengers in a vehicle. This would help rescue personnel, not only because of the fast reporting time, but also with potentially life-saving information such as the extent of injuries sustained and the blood types of the injured persons.

The Ford research centre at Aachen is testing the possibilities and limits of such systems as part of the European Union's Global System for Telematics project, which encompasses 49 participating companies and numerous individual projects.

Eco-Driving: Defensive Driving Behaviour
Ford Eco-Driving is not only a successful training programme to save fuel, but participants also learn a confident, relaxed, and therefore safe style of driving. Eco-Drivers learn to drive consistently and with foresight, to even out fluctuations in speed, to drive with the flow of traffic and to keep a comfortable distance from the vehicle in front of them. This results in the driver having enough space and time to act instead of being forced to react. Eco-Driving therefore not only improves the driver's road safety, but also that of all other road users.

Eco-Driving has been proven to improve traffic safety. By applying similar principles to those of the Eco-Driving program, the Swiss service teams of the electronics company Canon were able to achieve both reduced fuel consumption and significantly improved road safety after training at the Driving Centre Veltheim in Switzerland. Their accident rate dropped considerably - by 35%. The improvement in traffic safety was similarly high following on-the-job training for drivers from Hamburg's water supply authority by the German Traffic Safety Council, the Deutsche Verkehrssicherheitsrat, as demonstrated by the interim results of an ongoing comprehensive study.

Principles very similar to those taught in high-performance and motor-sport driving schools are taught in the Ford Eco-Driving programme, where the focus is on intelligent use of the road, endeavouring to drive an ideal line and acting defensively within the road space available. Avoiding hard braking not only helps reduce fuel consumption, but also improves traffic safety for following vehicles.

An internet survey from the German Ford-Werke AG on the subject of "Expectations of the Eco-Driving style" gave the following results: Eco-Driving means much more to the survey participants than just fuel savings resulting in financial savings and environmental benefits. It was clear to the participants that Eco-Driving also improves road safety since a driver using the techniques of economic driving automatically behaves in a cooperative and safe manner. Ford has offered Eco-Driving training across Germany through its dealership network since 2000 and recently expanded the program to cover natural gas powered vehicles. Since the programme started, around 7000 people have profited from the driving economy training, including private and professional drivers and driving teachers.

More information on the WHO initiative:
http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2004/en/

RETURN TO APRIL 2004 NEWSLETTER

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