Five Ways Ford Technology Can Help You Improve Your Driving Habits

For many Middle East drivers who lead busy lives, driving is a necessity that links home with business and play. Driving can be fun and can provide a relief from the daily grind – but it is also a time for vigilance.

This daily task we seem to perform as second nature isn’t without risk, and just a moment’s distraction can be disastrous. Ford technology, however, can help you stay on the straight and narrow. Check out these five driving habits, and the features Ford has designed to help keep its customers safe.

1. Speeding: An issue for many traffic police, and one that endangers a great deal of lives annually. With Ford MyKey®, an industry-first technology, owners can limit top speed, as well as prevent deactivation of driver assistance technologies, for added peace of mind when others are driving the vehicle. Ford’s Adaptive Cruise Control also helps drivers to keep their speed in check. Drivers set the speed they want to drive at and the system maintains it. If the car’s built-in radar sensor detects traffic ahead, it will slow the car down to maintain a pre-set distance. Once the road ahead clears, the car will accelerate back up to the driver’s chosen speed.

2. Lane Discipline: Unintentionally drifting into another lane and last-second decision-making leads to dangerous driving, and is one of the leading causes of crashes in the region. Ford’s Lane-Keeping system can help you to avoid this. When the system is on, an icon appears on the instrument panel to alert the driver of the vehicle’s lane status. In ‘Alert’ mode, the system sends three short vibrations to the steering wheel to notify drivers that they are drifting out of their lane. In ‘Aid’ mode, the system provides steering assistance to direct the driver to steer the vehicle back into the lane. Using data from the Lane-Keeping system, the Driver Alert System can then detect signs of driver fatigue and provide a warning on the instrument cluster.

3. Using a Mobile Phone: Though the day will come when the automotive industry is fully autonomous, and we won’t even have to look out the window, that day is not here yet, and so driver distraction is life-threatening. Ford’s all-new communications and entertainment system, SYNC 3, features hands-free, Siri Eyes-Free, and enjoys easy integration of both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, supports both text and voice activation, and enables drivers to remain focused on the road while staying connected.

4. Tailgating: The dreaded sight for a steady driver; the flashing headlights of a speeding car careening towards your bumper. Failure to keep a safe distance between cars is another leading cause of crashes in the region – and Ford’s Forward Collision Warning with Brake Support can help rectify this. The system is designed to alert the driver when there is a high probability of an imminent front-end collision. The system prepares the brakes and will also help to apply them fully if the driver applies the brakes aggressively. Active City Stop is another advanced feature that helps avoid or reduce the severity of low-speed collisions as it detects cars that may have stopped unexpectedly and automatically applies the car’s brakes. The award-winning technology is designed to work at speeds up to 50 km/h on selected Ford vehicles.

5. Protecting other road users: It’s tempting to think that only the occupants in your car are at risk when on the roads – but other road users present a danger too. BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) is designed to monitor lanes either side of the vehicle and alert you when something has moved into those difficult to see areas. Small warning lights in the side mirrors caution drivers about the approaching traffic, allowing them to take the appropriate precautions. Cross-Traffic Alert is designed to warn you of vehicles that are approaching from the sides as you reverse, so you can avoid backing into oncoming cars while exiting a carpark. And when it comes to reversing, an available 360-degree camera with split view allows the driver to see around the car, meaning there should be no reason to reverse dangerously.