Kick your foot under a 2013 Ford Escape, keep a key fob in your pocket, and the vehicle will open its rear liftgate automatically. That might not seem like a particularly hairy technical challenge, until you consider that the vehicle has to discern the difference between your foot and, say, a cat or a basketball. What's more, it has to understand your intentions.
"The tricky part is verifying intent," William McRoy, product development engineer for Ford Motor Co., told us. "You might be walking up to your vehicle but not want the liftgate to open. This has to be able to tell the difference."
The 2013 Ford Escape will use capacitive technology to operate a hands-free power liftgate. (Source: Ford Motor Co.)
To accomplish that, Ford's hands-free power liftgate employs capacitive sensing. Two sensors (one at the top and another at the bottom of the car's bumper fascia) "look" for the driver's foot and shin. When a microcontroller-based "hands-free module" in the vehicle verifies their presence, it communicates with a body control module that searches for the key fob in the driver's pocket. If the foot, shin, and fob are all detected, the system sends a signal to a liftgate module, which operates the door switch.
"The fob can be in a customer's purse or in a pocket," McRoy said. "The idea is you don't have to put down your groceries before you open the door."
Ford said the capacitive sensors endow the system with the ability to discriminate between a cat, a basketball, a foot, or a shin on the basis of electrical capacitance. Algorithms in the hands-free module then put the information together in a way that suggests intent.
I thought so, too, but i guess they weren't able to produce enough quality autoparts that's why ford was able to copy their design and then make it better with the parts. too bad for bmw.
The other "luxury" I've learned to like is the remote key fob. I wouldn't place it in the same category as automatic door locks, but I've learned to like the idea of hearing the beep when I remotely lock the door. I'm one of those people who can never remember if I've locked the door. By pressing on the key fob and hearing the beep, I know it's locked.
Yes, as little as it might seem, automatic door locks are a big deal if you have a minivan with a bunch of kids going in an out of a bunch of car doors -- as well as packing stuff in the back.
Rob, I never thought I would need automatic doorlocks on my cars, but now I'm hooked. It's a lot easier than turning around and locking every door in the car. It's easy to get used to some of these little luxuries.
I agree, Chuck. I don't pay extra for anything. Yet I've ended up with some nice features either because I bought a used car that happened to have features or the car that was on the lot (that I didn't have to wait for) happened to have features. Some of those features, though, have been fine -- like the glove compartment button that opens the trunk.
I have to admit, I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to extra features, so I probably wouldn't be willing to pay for this. The problem is, all features come in groups -- some optional, some standard -- and buyers often end up paying for them whether they know it or not.
I agree about not paying extra for it. Yet there have been countless times I've stood in front of a car's trunk with my arms full of grocery bags or luggage. Heck, I was cheap-thrilled when I had a car that had a button in the glove compartment that opened the trunk. My next car didn't have that feature and I actually missed it.
Oh, it's a plus, I agree. I rented a car last month, and enjoyed a keyless fob for the first time. Push-start, unlock doors as you grab the handle, just because the fob was in my pocket. It was quite an enjoyable experience.
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