Dearborn, Mich.--Ford is actively addressing drivers' demands for increased visibility with the introduction of two new features, the Blind Spot Mirror and the Cross Traffic Alert with Blind-Spot Monitoring System, arriving in 2009.
Ford will be first to market with the Blind Spot Mirror, answering customers' demands for better visibility as they change lanes or parallel park. This affordable mirror will first launch early next year and find its way onto many future Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles as standard equipment.
The Cross Traffic Alert with Blind Spot Monitoring System is a radar-based blind-spot detection system with the additional capability to help customers confidently back out of a parking space even when there is traffic approaching from the sides. The optional system will join the Ford portfolio of technologies in 2009.
Blind Spot Mirror
Ford's push to develop the Blind Spot Mirror is a direct response to customer research, said Kelly Kohlstrand of Ford's Advanced Product Marketing and Technology Planning team.
"We seek to plan new features that address unmet customer needs," Kohlstrand said. "Customers told us that visibility is important to them and that they specifically desired a more effective outside rearview mirror."
The Blind Spot Mirror is an affordable blind-spot solution that consists of an outside rearview mirror designed with a secondary convex spotter in the top outer corner, which is aimed exclusively at the driver's blind spot.
When traffic enters the driver's blind spot on either side of the vehicle, it is visible in the secondary convex mirror, thus alerting the driver of potential danger.
Cross Traffic Alert with Blind Spot Monitoring System
Backing out of a crowded spot in a bustling parking lot or into street traffic can be difficult. Drivers sometimes inch their way out with limited visibility on either side, counting on cross traffic to see their vehicle.
Ford's new Cross Traffic Alert feature will assist drivers in backing up by warning them of impending traffic. The feature works in conjunction with Ford's radar-based Blind Spot Monitoring System, using the system's two multiple-beam radar modules, which are packaged in the rear quarter panels--one per side.
The radar identifies when a vehicle enters the defined blind-spot zone and illuminates an indicator light on the corresponding sideview mirror, providing a warning that a vehicle is approaching.
Cross Traffic Alert uses the radar when in reverse to pick up moving objects within a 65-foot range from either side of the vehicle.
The radar also works when backing out of angled parking spaces because its view is wider than just strictly sensing traffic coming at a 90-degree angle.
Conventional systems have limited sideways effectiveness. When cross traffic is approaching, the radar system gives two warnings: an indicator lights up in the corresponding outside mirror and an audible alert is sounded.
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