Ford has announced that it will launch a new range of safety features on some of its 2009 vehicles. The new features will bow on most 2009 Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles and will help motorists avoid accidents involving the vehicle’s blind spots.
The first technology — which Ford has dubbed Blind Spot Monitoring System — will launch in early 2009 and will use radar to track vehicles in the driver’s blind spot. Ford’s system will alert drivers when another vehicle is in their blind spot by sounding an audible warning and illuminating an indicator in the vehicle’s side view mirror.
While this sort of technology is not new to the industry, this is actually the first time that any Ford vehicle will be equipped with such a system.
Along with Ford’s Blind Spot Monitoring System, the Blue Oval will also be introducing a Cross Traffic Alert in 2009. The system is designed to help drivers when backing out of a parking spot and can detect other vehicles withing 65 feet of either side of the vehicle’s rear bumper. While this technology won’t be of much use on the highway, it promises to reduce the number of parking lot fender benders.
Ford’s third and final feature to help reduce the number of accidents involving a vehicle’s blind spot is a small mirror that is fitted within a vehicle’s side-view mirror. Reminiscent of the “fish eye” mirrors of the 1980s, the small integrated mirror will give drives a better view down the side of the vehicle.
Ford failed to mention exactly which vehicles would be receiving the new features, but said that most Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles should be seeing the upgrades.
