Although Henry Ford didn’t invent the automobile, he transformed the automotive industry in many ways by, for instance, launching the Model T, which was the first vehicle in the world to be produced globally. He also created the world’s first-ever moving assembly line. Today, Ford is still at the forefront of innovation. Here are some groundbreaking technologies that Ford is currently working on.
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Public Chargers
As buyers increasingly opt for electric cars, the need for more electric chargers, especially in and around cities, is also increasing. This means that easily-locatable public chargers, especially fast chargers, will become key. To this end, Ford has developed a new algorithm to ascertain where to locate additional charging points, so that drivers don’t have to waste precious time and drive out of their way to look for chargers. Ford’s team has taken the regular driving and stopping patterns of drivers into consideration, so that topping up can slot in seamlessly with other day-to-day activities.
One of the trials of the program entailed the tracking of 160 Ford Transit vans over 625 miles and 15,000 vehicle-days of use, collecting over 500 million data points in this way. Although these trucks aren’t electrical, this information will be used to establish what the most convenient public charger locations will be for the majority of drivers.
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Flying Cars
Much of the research being conducted in the automotive industry currently has to do with the development of vehicles that have less emissions and a smaller carbon footprint. To this end, a lot of focus has fallen on the development of electric vehicles. Researchers at the University of Michigan and Ford Motor Co., however, are far ahead of the times and have already started looking into the potential environmental impacts of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircrafts, also known as VTOLs or flying cars.
This sustainability study, which is the first ever to be conducted for flying cars, has found that the potential emissions for flying cars was 52 percent lower than gas-powered cars and six percent lower than that of electric cars. The reason for this, is that a flying car uses a lot of energy to take off and climb, but after that the energy usage becomes quite efficient. However, because a large amount of energy is required to get a flying car off the ground, this technology, for now, is only efficient when trips are longer than 22 miles — for anything under that, gas-powered cars are more environmentally friendly.
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Autonomous Vehicles
Just because Ford is doing research on flying cars doesn’t mean that the manufacturer has not joined the race to bringing autonomous vehicles to our roads. According to Ford, their first autonomous vehicle will be released in 2021. This car, which will have no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brake pedal, will operate within a geo-fenced area as part of ride-sharing systems. As such, this autonomous Ford vehicle will be classified as a SAE Level 4-capable vehicle, which signifies that it will require no human interference at all.
The future of the automotive industry looks bright and interesting if one considers what exciting and groundbreaking technology Ford is working on. One wonders what will come after flying cars . . .
Image via Flickr by JD Hancock under use of CC BY 2.0/Cropped from original
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