Cars have always been a marvel of technology, starting from the invention of its wheel up to its constantly improving engines. To this day, manufacturers consistently strive to improve vehicle performance and safety. When back up cameras and warning beepers no longer suffice in helping drivers to park their cars, the Intelligent Parking Assist System stepped in to make a motorist’s life so much better.
With safety being a priority on the road, self-driving vehicles are foreseen as the best solution. But because they are not yet widely and commercially available, not to mention speedy enough to suffice a driver’s need for speed, improved driving safety may have to take a back seat. Well, not exactly. Apart from the fact that vehicles today are equipped with every safety feature conceivable, Ford is in the making of selling a car that can read road signs.
Yes you read it right. The second generations of Ford S-Max cars that will be launched in Europe this August, will be equipped with a system called the Intelligent Speed Limiter. It will have the capability to read road signs and adjusts speed accordingly.
How did Ford come up with the technology in just a short amount of time?
This is because the system is using technologies that are already installed in many cars. It uses the adjustable speed limiters that use sensors on the wheels to detect how fast a vehicle is going. Presently, when the software detects that the car is moving at the maximum preset speed, the amount of fuel that will reach the engine would be limited.
It also uses traffic sign recognition system that is composed of a forward-facing video camera mounted on the windscreen. As of the moment, the technology only alerts the driver to the presence of road signs and then displays them on the dashboard.
With these two technologies in existence, Ford only needs to tweak them to develop a vehicle that will travel according to speed limits.
