Subj : Future Ford cars wont do the parking for you anymore heres why To : All From : TechnologyDaily Date : Wed Feb 14 2024 18:15:05 Future Ford cars wont do the parking for you anymore heres why Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 18:08:28 +0000 Description: Ford says it is pulling the plug on some of its autonomous parking functionality, as customers weren't using it and it getting rid of it offers a potential cost saving. FULL STORY ====================================================================== Ford COO Kumar Galhotra announced that Ford will pull the plug on some of its autonomous parking functionality in order to make savings across the business. Ford has a number of autonomous parking features, all based around its Active Park Assist, which first made an entrance into the market some 10 years ago. With numerous generations arriving along the way, the tech aimed to take the stress out of parallel parking situations, with the vehicle first sensing a suitable space using onboard cameras and sensors, and then taking over driving duties, including accelerating and braking, to autonomously guide the car in. "Connected vehicle data here is very important because it helps us see what were providing, whether the customers are using it or not," Galhotra said during a conference call last week, according to a Bloomberg report. "So one example is an auto-park feature that lets the customer parallel park automatically. Very, very few people are using it so we can remove that feature. Its about $60 per vehicle," he added, referring to the saving Ford can make on each car by ditching the system. Fords COO then went on to state that the accumulative savings adds up around $10 million a year (8 million / AU$15.5 million), although the figure can be as high as $2 billion (1.6 billion / AU$3 billion) if you consider the wider manufacturing, freight and material costs involved with producing and offering a technology such as this. However, Galhotra didn't mention the precise name of the technology it was planning to axe, nor whether other autonomous features, such as Adaptive Cruise Control (which uses a similar sensor suite) would be affected by the nixing of "auto-park features". Currently Active Park Assist can be found on models such as the electric Ford Mustang Mach-E , the F150 pick-up and the Escape compact SUV. However, there has been no mention of a timeline for phasing out the system. The great autonomous debate (Image credit: Ford) Ford has tapped into a very interesting topic surrounding high levels of automation in modern vehicles, being one of the first manufacturers to pose the question: does anyone actually use this stuff?. Although the marketing bumph surrounding any new cars suggests that innovations like BMWs Reverse Assistant are life-savers (the system remembers the last few metres of road in case you need it to automatically reverse backwards), theres no real evidence to suggest they are any good, or if customers use them a great deal. Personally, most of the systems that Ive tried recently are slow and clunky, often missing spaces and taking way too long to perform the manoeuvre in question. Many times, I have switched the system off and taken over part-way through a reverse park situation to save myself the embarrassment of fellow motorists assuming I cant drive or causing a back-up of traffic in a multi-storey car park. In this case, Ford is using data from its connected cars to research the features its customers actually want and need. Although axing the hardware behind Fords Active Park Assist means the company also cant offer the functionality as an on-demand subscription package, as many manufacturers have been suggesting will happen with future in-car tech. Regardless, if it helps Ford keep the unit cost down of its vehicles, it also passes savings on to the customer, which will only buoy consumer confidence in the current climate of overtly expensive EVs. Perhaps its best to leave the autonomous functionality until cars can truly drive themselves. Everything else in the meantime is just a bit pointless and clunky. you might also like Is it actually illegal to drive while wearing an Apple Vision Pro? Surprisingly, it's complicated Your in-car entertainment system and EV charger likely have big security flaws, hackers find Hyundai is building its own in-car AI system and it actually sounds like a good idea ====================================================================== Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/vehicle-tech/hybrid-electric-vehicles/future-ford-ca rs-wont-do-the-parking-for-you-anymore-heres-why --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 (Linux/64) * Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100) .