All-new 2019 Ford Focus gets pothole detection technology, no, it’s not April 1
The all-new 2019 Ford Focus with its Continuously Controlled Damping will be able to recognise and adjust to reduce the impact force of hitting a pothole.
FORD’S ALL-NEW FOCUS (here towards the end of the year) with its new Continuously Controlled Dampers includes pothole detection capability to reduce the impact and potential damage to a vehicle when driving through potholes. Harsh impacts with severe potholes can cause damage to a vehicle’s wheels, tyres and suspension systems, resulting in hefty repair bills.
Ford said its adjustable dampers can recognise when the wheels have hit a pothole and limit the wheel and tyre from falling into the pothole and thus avoiding a nasty impact as the wheel and tyre strike the other side of the pothole. The system pre-warns the rear wheel about the pothole. The system monitors body, brake, steering, wheel and suspension movements every two milliseconds.
“Our engineers are always searching for the roughest roads to really test our suspension to the limit, but more and more we’re noticing that the rough roads are finding us,” said Guy Mathot, Ford Focus vehicle dynamics supervisor. “Potholes are a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon, but with our advanced suspension technology for all-new Focus, we’ve been able to reduce their impact.”
Ford developed its adaptive damper system using a specially created road at the company’s test facility in Belgium, which consists of precise replicas of some of the worst potholes and road hazards from around the world. Engineers further refine the systems with hundreds of hours of testing on a diverse range of European public roads.
Locally, we’ll see the new Ford Focus Down Under towards the end of this year and given the rubbish quality of a lot of our roads, this pothole detection capability will get a fair old workout.
