Ford has announced that one of its European models will receive a safety feature next year that is found in self-driving cars.
The feature will come in the form of a collision warning system called Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection, which will let the driver know if a collision is about to happen and controls the breaks in order to avoid an accident, according to Tech Times. The Dearborn, Mich.-based automaker created the system to lessen the damage from car accidents involving pedestrians, as well as avoid them all together.
The lucky vehicle to receive the Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection will be the 2015 Mondeo.
The system can differentiate between roadside objects and people, and can do so using a camera mounted on the windshield and radar placed near the bumper to record information and compare it to its own database of pedestrian shapes, Modern Readers reported. Ford said it ran tests for the system to ensure it can tell the difference between people and objects when it's in use.
"This real-world testing was an important part of the development, because pedestrians in an urban setting and present a wide range of potential situations," said Scott Lindstrom, Ford manager for Driver Assist Technologies. "We covered more than 300,000 miles on three continents that included a wide range of settings and situations."
The feature is also designed to help drivers avoid collisions on the rear end of the car, Tech Times reported. Drivers will also be able to avoid hitting pedestrians and objects no matter how fast or slow they are going.
Ford plans to eventually make the Pre-Collision Assist feature available in all of its vehicles so it can reduce the amount of accidents on the road.
