Ford Motor Company has started a four-year research project in Frankfurt, Germany to improve car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communication.
The project named, Safe Intelligent Mobility - Testfield Germany, is intended at improving road safety and mobility through the use of intelligent communication technologies.
Technologies being tested as part of the project include electronic brake light, obstacle warning system, traffic sign assistant, public traffic management, in-car internet access.
The trial will consist of a fleet of 120 cars equipped with 20 S-MAX models.
The project's consortium involves representatives from Audi, BMW, Daimler, Ford, Opel, Volkswagen, Bosch, Continental, Deutsche Telekom.
Ford Research and Advanced Engineering technical expert Christian Ress said, "The vehicles will cover thousands of kilometres in test drives and evaluations to gather valuable research data from every-day driving scenarios."
The projet has received funding of about EUR53m, out of which EUR30m of direct project promotional support comes from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology together with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
