DEARBORN – Ford Motor Company Tuesday introduced a new innovation – Curve
Control – designed to help drivers maintain control of their vehicles when
taking a curve too quickly.
Curve Control debuts as standard equipment on the all-new 2011 Ford
Explorer going into production later this year, and will be offered on 90
percent of the company’s North American crossovers, sport utilities, trucks
and vans by 2015.
The technology senses when a driver is taking a curve too quickly – a
situation found to contribute to about 50,000 crashes each year in the U.S.
– and rapidly reduces engine torque and can apply four-wheel braking,
slowing the vehicle by up to 10 mph in about one second.
“Too many accidents stem from drivers misjudging their speed going into
curves and freeway off- and on-ramps,” said Sue Cischke, Ford group vice
president of Sustainability, Environment and Safety Engineering. “Ford’s
Curve Control technology senses a potentially dangerous situation and
reduces power and applies brakes more quickly than most drivers can react
on their own.”
Curve Control is effective on dry or wet pavement, and is expected to
be particularly useful when drivers are entering or exiting freeway on- or
off-ramps with too much speed. When a vehicle enters a curve too fast, the
system responds to the driver’s steering input by rapidly reducing torque
and increasing brake pressure to help keep the vehicle under control.
The patent-pending system works by measuring how quickly the vehicle is
turning and comparing that with how quickly the driver is trying to turn.
When the vehicle is not turning as much as the driver is steering – also
known as “pushing” – Curve Control activates. The system applies the
precise amount of braking required on each wheel to enhance the individual
wheel braking of the traditional stability control system.
Based on Ford’s exclusive AdvanceTrac with RSC (Roll Stability
Control), Curve Control uses sensors to measure roll rate, yaw rate,
lateral acceleration, wheel speed and steering wheel angle, and runs
calculations based on those inputs 100 times every second.
“Ford is developing technologies such as Curve Control and radar-based
collision warning systems that can prevent crashes from happening in the
first place,” said Paul Mascarenas, Ford vice president of Engineering for
Global Product Development. “These new active systems designed to prevent
accidents are the perfect complement for Ford’s leading passive safety
systems – such as advanced airbags and high-strength vehicle structures –
that protect occupants when a crash is inevitable.”
Curve Control is one of several new driver assist and safety
technologies to be offered on the all-new Explorer. Other technologies
include next-generation adaptive cruise control and collision warning with
brake support, state-of-the-art pressure-based airbag technology, the
industry’s first inflatable rear seat belts and intelligent
four-wheel-drive terrain management system.
Ford safety researchers found through analysis of government crash data
that approximately 50,000 crashes annually in the U.S. involve driving too
fast on a curve.
According to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety,
freeway ramps “are the sites of far more crashes per miles driven than
other segments of interstate highways.” In that 2004 study of more than
1,100 urban freeway interchange crashes, vehicle speed was noted as a
“primary crash contributor.” About half of those interchange crashes
occurred when at-fault drivers were in the process of exiting interstates
and another 36 percent occurred when drivers were entering interstates.
“While we strongly encourage our customers to drive at safe speeds,
systems such as Curve Control can be useful in unexpected situations,” said
Ali Jammoul, Ford chief engineer, Chassis Systems.
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