Ford System Will Warn, Correct Lane-Drifting Drivers

PolygamousRanchKid writes "Ford says its new Fusion, which will debut at the North American International Auto Show in a couple weeks, will be the first mainstream midsize sedan in North America to offer a lane departure system. Lane departure systems are aimed at warning drivers, especially drowsy ones, if their vehicles wander out of their lane. A digital camera mounted on the windshield ahead of the rear-view mirror keeps a watch. The system not only causes the steering wheel to vibrate if it senses an unintentional lane departure, it will also steer the car back into the right lane. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes occur every year as a result of drowsy drivers, leading to 1,500 deaths, 71,000 injuries and $12.5 billion in monetary losses." I'd just like to know how hard the AI will fight if it misinterprets a driver's intentional lane change.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[sribe]

As do I. All these nut bags that refuse to use their signals are a danger on the road.

Turn signals are dangerous. They provide your adversaries with advance notice of your intention; it's much better to take them by surprise. (I came to understand this when I lived in Boston.)

Re:Sedans?

[Trepidity]

A "sedan" in US English is what UKians call a "saloon car".

I'm not sure the UK wins less ridiculous name on this one, unless your saloon car also has swinging wooden doors, serves alcohol, and has several cowboys as passengers.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Big problem in NJ then, where lane changes are apparently required every 100ft or so, and signal use is strictly prohibited.

US-sized in that you get more car for the dollar.

[sethstorm]

Versus Europe and Asia, you get more car in the US, and it is built for the wide open spaces that frustrate golfcarts.

What is it with Europe and their hate on ordinary people having Detroit-like power under the hood, up to the point where people let V8 behemoths rot in garages for fear of taxes?

US cars are hardly inelegant or antiquated - they just weren't built with austerity, but built with pride. You don't see General Motors/Chrysler/Ford cars being blown up by terrorists; you see them use cheap-as-shit Toyotas, Hyundais, Mitsubishis, Peugeots, and other non-US cars that are made with no attention to quality or design.

The US made the mistake of allowing transplants in the door during the days of import quotas in the 1980's. That, and we haven't protected our manufacturers enough to keep US cars that are truly built with only a US audience in mind.

Another feature

[McDrewbie]

How about after say 3 times the car has to enable this feature, it removes all control from the driver, keeps their belt buckled, and drives them to the nearest 12-hr Driving Course for a re-upper.

Re:More stuff to go wrong

[Zcar]

And a transmission.

What does it do if you miss the Ford dealership?

[rcpitt]

At oil change time when you go to turn into the Mr. Lube the steering wheel resists, the doors and windows lock, the radio turns to a Ford oil change commercial and you're driven to the nearest Ford dealership

Will it wake me when my exit's coming up?

[outsider007]

Also I'd like to request a 'snooze bar' feature, sometimes I like to get a few more minutes sleep before getting off the highway.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[Anonymous Coward]

Some car manufacturers don't put turn signals on their vehicles. BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes, and Cadillac come to mind. Most of these cars don't seem to have them built-in. But I do believe there is an aftermarket turn signal package because a few (very few) do have signals.

Re:US-sized in that you get more car for the dolla

[sethstorm]

Might be grating for your ears to hear that, Anonymous Coward, but if someone is willing to rig a car to blow up, the car isn't something that has any value to it. This usually means you have cars like those made from Japanese, Korean and austerity-minded European designs. Who's going to miss that golfcart when there are tons of others just as bad?

On the other hand, US cars don't have such affliction for having some actual quality and attention to detail not given to cars for developing nation markets.

Japan had its chance in the 1980's to overtake the US in large-car production. Once it went in the keicar/speed-limiter-by-gentleman's-agreement direction, it was forever lost.

Korea just chops up whatever designs are trendy and puts them in a legally-friendly-but-blatant copy of a package.

China just takes your designs.

Phrasing...

[fahrbot-bot]

...it will also steer the car back into the right lane...

I hope they mean "correct" (or "current") lane.

Re:work zones / new pavement with out lines

[robi5]

In works zones some times you see lines all over the place will the AI be smart and auto trun off when it sees that?

The developers must have not thought of that, and just assumed that their cars will be driven in perfect worlds. Probably whatever output the AI gives will be used to turn the wheels, irrespective of confidence measures, speed, driver intention etc. The developers should have clearly come here to Slashdot first, asking for advice.

Re:Turn signals are a good thing

[Bob the Super Hamste]

Actually they do come with turn signals, but they use special synthetic DOT 7 blinker fluid that is difficult to find and most oil change shops are unaware of this need as they can barely remember to change the oil filter. As this needs to be changed with every oil change the signals cease to function after a short time of neglect. This is much like the Lucas wiring harness smoke [telus.net] that people would in inadvertently let out of their older British vehicles.