Ford’s camera sees where you can’t
IT’S a scenario drivers know all too well. Inching forward to get a better look at side-approaching traffic at blind junctions, while your car’s nose protrudes further and further into the potential danger zone.
Or worse, as can be witnessed daily on South African roads, drivers taking leaps of faith and hoofing it directly into traffic flow because they can’t see what’s coming.
While some high-end luxury cars have for a few years featured tiny front fender-mounted cameras to make “seeing around corners” a little easier, Ford is now using a similar but simplified technology on some less expensive models in Europe.
Instead of two side-mounted cameras, Ford’s new Front Split View Camera uses one 33 millime- tre-wide lens positioned in the front grille to offer a real-time, 180 degree view from as far forward in the car as possible.
It then displays the view, at the push of a button, on an 8” colour screen in the dashboard so drivers can see what’s coming before poking out into the paths of other cars, pedestrians or cyclists. The 1- megapixel lens also gets its own retractable jetwasher nozzle, activated with the windscreen sprayers, to keep it clean.
For now Ford is only using the Front Split View Camera system on its S-Max and Galaxy vans, neither of which are sold in our market, but it may feature in local models sometime in the future.