The principle of operation of the smart system of automatic braking of the car in case of an obstacle called Active City Stop.
Content:
- The principle of the automatic braking system
- Active City Stop in real time
- Disadvantages of ACS
- ACS price
The automatic braking system (Active City Stop) is a proprietary Ford system designed to reduce the risk of accidents. It was officially announced that such additions will be equipped with Ford Focus cars starting from August 1, 2013.
The principle of the automatic braking system
The Active City Stop system works on the classic radar scheme. In this case, a laser acts as an emitting element. The beam is focused in front of the car at a certain distance. Special sensors pick up the reflected signal and convert it into an electronic code, which is processed by the car's on-board computer. At the same time, the system collects data on the vehicle speed and estimates the approximate braking distance. After doing some calculations, a decision is made whether to enable automatic braking or not. According to the engineers of Ford, the complex allows 100% to prevent accidents when the car is moving at a speed of 15 km / h and to minimize the consequences of a collision upon impact at a speed of 30 km / h.
It would seem whether there is any sense in such additions, if in theory a person himself can react quickly enough, but it's another matter how quickly. It is known that people spend on average 0.1 to 0.3 seconds to make a decision, but do not forget that these data are correct if the driver does not experience fatigue, drunkenness, malaise, or simply does not see the situation from the front well. Accordingly, the risk of road accidents increases significantly. At the same time, the Active City Stop automatic braking system scans the situation at a speed of 1/50 of a second, plus the same amount is spent on making a decision. In total, it turns out that machine intelligence is at least 5 times faster than human intelligence.
Operation of the Active City Stop system in real time
As noted earlier, the ACS electronic analytical complex is designed for operation in the speed range from 15 to 30 km / h. To monitor the traffic situation above this range, Ford has developed another system - Forward Alert.
Active City-Stop perfectly copes with its task in the specified mode, however, during operation, the driver does not receive any warning signals: neither sound, nor light, nor tactile - in the form of steering wheel vibration. If you accelerate to a speed of 40 km / h and head towards a stationary obstacle, the system will not react even if you release the accelerator pedal. However, if you get dangerously close to a car moving at the same speed, the algorithm will first give a warning signal to the driver, and later apply half-force braking.
Disadvantages of ACS at work
Since Active City-Stop relies in its work on less data than a person and does not have the same perfect processing algorithm, sometimes the complex does not work correctly. For example, a standard situation: You are heading for a bend. A car drives ahead and begins the maneuver. The distance between you is shrinking and the ACS system thinks that the risk of a collision has increased excessively and gives the command to brake. In fact, there is no danger in reality. Even if you continue to move at the same speed, then most likely by the next moment the lane in front will already be free.
Another ambiguous situation arises then, then a car in front of you maneuvers at low speeds. There can be false positives here too. We also add that for reliable operation of the system, it is required to keep both the laser lens itself and the sensors installed in the front clean clean.
In general, it was not supposed to officially equip cars from Ford with the Active City Stop system for residents of Russia. The representatives referred to the fact that many cars in our country drive with dirty license plates and lanterns, and the radar of the complex is focused on these elements. In theory, this made the system more complicated, but in fact it seems more logical that in large cities people are used to driving close to each other due to the limited space. Therefore, the automatic braking system in such an environment would constantly slow down and interfere with continuing movement.
Automatic braking system cost
Although manufacturers claim that it is possible to order the installation of such an add-on for as little as $ 500, in fact, Active City-Stop is included in the adaptive cruise control kit, which itself is estimated at $ 1320. Those. in the end, you will have to pay almost $ 2,000, and specifically - $ 1,820. The price for this device, as you can see, is not small, but what use it will be is unknown. The Active City-Stop installation can be ordered only in the Focus Titanium, Trend Sport trim levels (for example, Ford Focus ST), as well as Sport Limited Edition.
