Ford first announced its pothole mitigation technology in early 2016 with the Mondeo, and to this day remains as the only company so far to remain committed in minimising damages caused by potholes. The technology now finds its way into the new Ford Focus range.
Potholes, as we Malaysians very well know, can damage the car’s rims, tyres and even the suspension. The Blue Oval’s pothole detection technology claims to help reduce these damages by employing sensors to detect when a wheel is about to fall into a pothole, and immediately stiffens up the suspension as it braces for impact. Doing so limits suspension travel, which means the wheel won’t dip in the hole entirely.
And because the wheel doesn’t fall as much, it won’t strike the opposite edge of the pothole as harshly upon exit. Ford says the rear suspension is capable of responding even quicker thanks to split-second warning it receives from the front sensors. Ford has already tested some of its new cars on a nightmarish 2 km road at its Lommel Proving Ground in Belgium, using replicas of some of the world’s worst potholes.
Ford Focus’ vehicle dynamics supervisor Guy Mathot said “our engineers are always searching for the roughest roads to really test our suspension to the limit, but more and more we’re noticing that the rough roads are finding us. Potholes are a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon, but with our advanced suspension technology for the all-new Focus, we’ve been able to reduce their impact.”
The pothole detection tech comes as part of the car’s Continuously Controlled Damping system, which monitors suspension, body, steering and braking inputs every two milliseconds and adjusts damping responses for improved ride quality.
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Aside from P2 smart integrated TnG reader. This is another amazing tech. Bravo!
Integrated Smartag reader soon to be obsoleted by Smartage RFID. Lolz at P2! Oh wait, I thought PH says no more tolls alredi, apa dah jadi….
No proving ground is complete without trying at Selangor Darul Pothole.
It looks like previous gen Mazda 3
hmmm…. I believe this is won’t move if come to Sabah, pothholes detected left right front rear
is it tested in malaysia or not
I personally just need a good after sale service.
if this focus ever comes to our market, they probably remove this tech to increase their margin ^^ u can be assured of it
FORD trucks are okay but FORD cars and SUVs are a joke to many !!
in malaysia, we not only have potholes, we also have lots of huge road humps….that will readily launch cars into the air…
Macam macam ada in Mesia…
Dear Ford,
Here in Malaysia, we need a flat road detector which can sense if there is a flat surface on the road and automatically plays the “winning a battle” Final Fantasy VII theme. (80’s and 90’s should be humming the theme by now).
– I Have Just Added A Comment –
‘Immediately stiffens up the suspension as it braces for impact. Doing so limits suspension travel, which means the wheel won’t dip in the hole entirely’
I don’t understand this statement. First of all how the wheel won’t dip in the hole completely when it says it will stiffens up the suspension to brace for impact?
Ford’s original video with the Mondeo explains this better. Watch it here: https://paultan.org/2016/02/19/ford-develops-a-pothole-mitigation-suspension-system/