Ford’s Curve Control Technology Offers Drivers Added Safety

July 22, 2010

Ford Motor Company is taking the Explorer to the next level in safety technology. The 2011 Ford Explorer will now include Curve Control, a new crash-avoidance innovation designed to aide driver control during sharp turns.

Taking a curve too quickly and causing rollover accidents is a common issue for SUVs and unfortunately contributes to about 50,000 accidents in the U.S. each year. Freeway interchanges are among the more dangerous sites for these types of accidents.

In a 2004 survey of over 1,100 urban freeway interchange crashes conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, speed was the primary cause for crashes. Roughly 50 percent of the accidents in the study occurred when the driver was exiting the freeway, while an additional 36 percent occurred while entering interchanges. With this new technology, the new Explorer takes drivers a few steps closer to precision handling by allotting them an extra few seconds to react. When a driver speeds through a turn, Curve Control is said to reduce the vehicle’s speed by up to ten mph in one second, in order to help drivers maintain control and continue driving safely.

What makes this new technology unique is that it senses dangerous turning situations, automatically reduces the engine’s torque, and applies four-wheel braking faster than the typical driver reaction. The system is effective on both dry or wet road conditions and is especially useful for freeway on- and off-ramps.

Curve Control is an extension of Ford’s AdvanceTrac with Roll Stability Control (RSC), using sensors to measure a variety of factors, including yaw rate, lateral acceleration, wheel speed, role rate and steering wheel angle. More than 100 calculations are made every second in order to determine if the vehicle is turning more than the driver is steering.

This new system will be a standard addition to all 2011 Ford Explorers, and the company anticipates that Curve Control will be available to 90 percent of its vehicles by 2015.

Alyse Speyer
AskPatty Contributor

Alyse Speyer has been an independent Internet marketing consultant for the past four years. She has a wealth of experience in content creation and management, social media marketing, brand positioning, SEO, SEM, email marketing and web strategy. Clients include: The Cobalt Group, Online Marketing Summit, AskPatty, Sipe & Associates, LLC. Connect with Alyse via Facebook and LinkedIn.