Ford Trials Smart Driver Alert Technology Using In-car Speakers & Intuitive Sounds – Auto Futures

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Ford of Europe is trialling smart driver alert technology to indicate the direction from which people and objects are approaching vehicles. Engineers are exploring in-car audio to clearly convey the location of other road users or pedestrians.

In addition, they are testing the use of intuitive sounds such as footsteps, bicycle bells and the sound of passing cars rather than a single tone.

A Ford-developed software uses the information from the sensors to select the appropriate sound and play it through the speaker closest to the obstacle.

Engineers set up a real-world scenario on the test track, with a vehicle backing out of a parking space, an approaching pedestrian and the footsteps alert. Participants in the test responded positively to the footsteps sound, especially when this intuitive alert was played through a specific speaker.

Initial tests revealed that drivers using Directional Audio Alerts were significantly more accurate when it came to identifying potential hazards and their position.

In future, engineers believe that those results might be further improved by using 3D spatial sound similar to that used in cinemas and gaming to better enable drivers to identify the source of a hazard.

Oliver Kirstein, SYNC software engineer, Enterprise Connectivity, Ford of Europe, says: Todays warning tones already inform drivers when they need to take care and be vigilant. Tomorrows technology could alert us to both exactly what the hazard is and where it is coming from.

Ford vehicles currently feature driver assistance technologies that use a suite of sensors to identify when pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles are nearby. These technologies offer visual and audible alerts and if necessary, apply emergency braking.

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Ford Trials Smart Driver Alert Technology Using In-car Speakers & Intuitive Sounds - Auto Futures