Ford has shown off a video that demonstrates its planned Traffic Jam Assist driver aid system that aims to reduce stress and fatigue. It uses the carmaker's existing technology used in Lane-Keeping Aid and Active Park Assist to steer and accelerate or slow a car in slow-moving traffic conditions on the highway.
It does require the car to also be equipped with the PowerShift automatic transmission as well. The system uses radar and camera technology to maintain pace with the traffic around the car. The lane keeping assist system will help the car stay in its lane.
Other than the benefits to drivers, Ford also touts time and fuel efficiency gains if all traffic can be moving smoothly using systems such as this. The system requires clearly marked lanes and a lack of pedestrians, cyclists or animals. Whether motorcycles can be detected by the system isn't clear. The system would also alert drives of conditions and could be overridden by driver input at all times.
The carmaker is also working on adding the ability to have the cars park themselves in perpendicular spots in addition to parallel spots, which the Active Park Assist can already perform, without driver input on the steering wheel.
The basic Ford systems that Traffic Jam Assist would require are already offered on the Focus, Escape, and Fusion.
There are some early prototypes of the systems already on the roads, Ford said.
