Behind the scenes, Ford has been working on an innovative system for cars to detect, map, and avoid potholes that can will be rolled out for real-world testing later this year.
According to the American automaker’s European division, where the software was developed and will likely be deployed first, this virtual map of potholes will work in real time, letting the cars alert drivers via the in-car display so they can avoid a nasty judder up ahead.
Additionally, the mesh of know potholes can be integrated into the car’s navigation system so that routes can be chosen based on the road quality and fewest possible risk of a hitting pothole. Ford says that in the UK alone, there is a pothole claim damage filed every 17 minutes, with an average vehicle repair cost of 508 Euros (around $705 AUD).
In addition, it’s suspected that bad road surfaces contribute to more than one third of all accidents every year and of all the potholes that were reported in 2011, only half of them ended up being filled in or repaired by local authorities.
“A virtual pothole map could highlight a new pothole the minute it appears and almost immediately warn other drivers that there is a hazard ahead,” said Uwe Hoffmann, research engineer, Advanced Chassis Control Technologies, Ford of Europe. “Our cars already feature sensors that detect potholes and now we are looking at taking this to the next level.”
Cars like the Ford Mondeo and S-Max, for example, already use on-board sensors for their Continuously Controlled Damping with Pothole Mitigation system, allowing the car to sense an impending impact with a pothole and adjust suspension softness to allow it to be better absorbed by the entire vehicle, resulting in a better ride and minimising damage to the wheel.
The next step would be to use cameras and embedded modems to work together and deliver detailed information on the potholes detected and beam them to the cloud for processing and be made to other drivers in real time.
It would, of course, be great for Ford to make the technology open and available for all automakers to adopt as an industry standard, but at least in the short term following its development and launch, it will only be a feature reserved for new Ford models.
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