Ford's next wave of driver-assist technologies will protect you from yourself

Ford has a fleet of self-driving prototypes whisking around its campus in Michigan, but here's what matters to the masses: driver-assist technologies. These are the whiz-bang inclusions that enable the car to compensate for driver ineptitude (harsh, but true), as well as accidental lapses in attention.

Ford's next-gen driver-assist technology

Ford's next-gen driver-assist technology (Image credit: Ford)

In the next two years, you'll be able to order a Ford with loads of new tech – stuff that'll probably make you queasy when setting up a test drive. It's part of the automaker's promise to triple its investment in developing driver-assist features, no doubt a necessary step in the creation of a fully autonomous vehicle.

Adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, lane departure warning, rear cross-traffic alert, driver monitoring, adaptive high-beam assist – all stuff you can buy today. Fast forward two years, and you'll find next-gen cross-traffic alert tech that can "detect people and objects about to pass behind the vehicle, provide a warning to the driver, and then automatically brake if the driver does not respond."

Ford's driver-assist technology

Ford's driver-assist technology (Image credit: Ford)

We're also promised "systems that steer around vehicles to avoid high-speed collisions, and systems that can warn drivers from traveling the wrong way against traffic."

Ford's wrong way alert system

Ford's wrong way alert system (Image credit: Ford)

Oh, and if you're curious why there's such a need to protect us from ourselves, chew on this: Ford had to up its interior storage space to accommodate the screens we can't stop staring at.

Darren Murph
Darren Murph has roamed the consumer electronics landscape for a decade, earning a Guinness World Record as the planet’s most prolific professional blogger along the way. His work has been featured in Popular Science, Engadget, BGR, Mazda’s Zoom-Zoom owner’s magazine, Oprah.com, Gadling, and Thrillist, and he has appeared on ABC, PBS, CTV and NBC. He is presently dabbling in quantum physics in a bid to construct the 30-hour day, and is also TechRadar's Global Editor-in-Chief.