Ford turns up heat on COVID-19

Ford Motor Company has turned up the heat in its efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus, fitting its Police Interceptor Utility with a new cabin heating feature designed to ‘inactivate’ any virus particles in the car.

Developed with the help of Ohio State University, the system works by baking the car’s interior at 56 degrees Celsius or higher for 15 minutes and is available now on all 2013-19 Police Interceptor Utility vehicles.

When activated, the software purposely increases the engine temperature and raises the climate control and fan settings to their maximum settings to ensure the entire cabin has an ambient temperature of 56C or above before a subsequent cooldown protocol is activated at the end of the 15 minutes.

To ensure officers know when the system is operational, a series of preset flash sequences are carried out by the hazard and tail-lights with a separate sequence displayed at the end of the cycle during cooldown.

Ford chief product development and purchasing officer Hau Thai-tang said first responders were in dire need of protective measures given they were on the front line protecting everybody else.

“We looked at what’s in our arsenal and how we could step up to help,” he said.

“In this case, we’ve turned the vehicle’s powertrain and heat control systems into a virus neutraliser.”

The specific duration of 15 minutes and set temperature of 56C was settled upon by Ohio State University.

University department of microbiology laboratory supervisors Jeff Jahnes and Jesse Kwiek, said exposing coronaviruses to temperatures of 56 degrees Celsius, or 132.8 degrees Fahrenheit, for 15 minutes reduced the viral concentration by greater than 99 percent on interior surfaces.