Ford tests remote brake lights

Ford and BMW have presented two ground-breaking new technologies at the conclusion of the joint industry research project, Safe Intelligent Mobility – Testfield Germany (simTD), in Frankfurt yesterday.

Among the 20 new technologies presented by Ford was an advanced ‘brake light’ system that warns drivers of vehicles braking ahead – even if they’re around corners and/or in traffic.

The study found the technology could enable drivers following behind to brake earlier and potentially mitigate or avoid a collision.

The early-warning car-to-car communication system employs experimental ‘Electronic Brake Light’ (EBL) technology that transmits a wireless signal to illuminate a dashboard light on following vehicles.

Engineers from Ford’s European Research Centre in Aachen, Germany, led the development, testing and data analysis of EBL.

The system was tested in some of the 20 specially equipped Ford S-MAX models that also evaluated experimental Ford technologies including Obstacle Warning, which alerts drivers to objects on the road, and Traffic Sign Assistant, which provides up-to-date information from traffic management centres.

Other Ford technologies tested as part of simTD included Public Traffic Management, which provides exact traffic prognosis based on comprehensive information, and In-car Internet Access, which offers drivers information about free parking spaces and can check traffic hotspots by receiving up-to-date pictures from traffic cameras.

Ford says that as a global leader in researching car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communications, it is engaged in the European Commission-supported field operational tests DRIVE C2X, and in North America’s Safety Pilot Model Deployment, a field test of more than 2800 vehicles in cooperation with the University of Michigan.

It said the collation of results from these programs supports Ford’s objective of harmonising standards for messaging and hardware globally that would enable the delivery of new technologies faster, more efficiently and more economically.

“Car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communications represent one of the next major advancements in vehicle safety,” said Ford Research and Innovation’s Chief Technical Officer and Vice-President, Paul Mascarenas.

“Ford is committed to further real-world testing here and around the world with the goal of implementation in the foreseeable future.”

The simTD field tests, which ended last December, took place in the Frankfurt region and involved 500 test drivers in 120 vehicles, as part of a four-year joint industry research project.

Testers logged more than 41,000 hours and 1.6 million kilometers on public roads and an enclosed test track.

SimTD is a joint project by leading German automotive manufacturers, component suppliers, communication companies, research institutions and public authorities. Funding for the project was approximately €53 million, of which €30m of direct project promotional support was provided by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Ford was just one of many car-makers to take part in the simTD project, which aimed to find intelligent transport systems to reduce congestion and improve safety.

The consortium also involved representatives from BMW, Audi, Daimler, Opel, Volkswagen, Bosch, Continental and Deutsche Telekom.

As part of yesterday’s closing presentation in Frankfurt, BMW also presented a summary of its findings from the research project’s field tests.

Chief among BMW’s objectives was to test technology that electronically links vehicles and traffic infrastructure, dubbed Car-to-X, in actual traffic via wireless LAN or mobile network connections.

Using Car-to-X technology, 20 BMW cars and five BMW motorcycles tested the German car-maker’s Cross Traffic Assistant and Traffic Sign Assistant systems.

BMW says the former is important because in Germany alone a third of all accidents involving personal injury occur at intersections because other road users are registered either too late or not at all.

Cross Traffic Assistant addresses this by giving drivers advance warning of possible hazards in intersections, based on data received from road users in the area.

“The system evaluates all incoming data, such as the speed, distance from the intersection and direction of travel of other road users, along with information generated by the driver’s own vehicle,” said Dr Christoph Grote, Head of BMW Group Research and Technology.

“If the driver does not react to an intersecting vehicle, he will be warned by visual as well as acoustic signals.”

BMW says this will allow drivers to brake in time to avoid an accident, thus effectively pre-empting any failure to see crossing vehicles that have right of way.

“The investigations proved that, with the current close-to-production positioning technology, the Cross Traffic Assistant function already has the potential to prevent many accidents at intersections,” said Grote.

The other BMW technology tested was Traffic Sign Assistant, which by means of Car-to-X informs drivers of varying traffic management signs relating to road and traffic situations, such as current speed limits or congestion warnings.

BMW says the ability of Car-to-X to alert drivers of relevant traffic signs and lanes brings a range of other potential system such as Traffic Light Phase Assistant, which can advise the optimum speed to avoid red lights and travel through a succession of green lights.

By transferring specific data on traffic levels, the state of road surfaces and other factors, vehicles of the future could also give other vehicles advance warnings of accidents (obstacle warning), traffic tailbacks (end of tailback warning) or black ice (road weather warning).

Similar technologies were also tested in the form of BMW Motorrad ConnectedRide -- the two-wheeled equivalent of BMW ConnectedDrive – which also used Car-to-X communication to focus on enhancing safety for motorcyclists.