2011 Ford Fiesta

2011 Ford Fiesta

For those of us that are small car lovers (yes, we are definitely guilty there) one of the scariest things you can experience is an Escalade or F250 coming over the line at you on a curvy road. No on likes to go from Fiesta to pancake in 60 seconds flat (pun intended). So what is Ford’s newest safety feature and how does it work? Let’s check it out.

Ford's Curve Control system

Ford's Curve Control system

Curve Control technology is similar to dynamic vehicle skid control in some of the European cars like Mercedes and BMWs. The technology uses four-wheel “smart braking” and the reduction of engine torque to reduce the speed of a vehicle that is loosing control entering or exiting a corner. The system can reduce a vehicles speed by up to 10 mph in about one second. It generally works by measuring the driver inputs and comparing them to the vehicles behavior on the road—specifically if the vehicle is or is not rotating.

I know what some of you are thinking—do we really need another safety feature when all people need to do is learn how to drive? Well, the answer is…YES. No matter how many performance driving or driving safety courses are out there, there are a lot of people who feel that they are as good as Mario Andretti during an F1 race while they are making their daily commute to the office. Most of us have witnessed the over aggressive enter a corner and either wind up in someone else’s lane or worse off the road entirely.

Personally, I would like to see people get more driver training and rely less on the vehicles to save their bad driving habits, but I do applaud Ford for looking out for the publics general safety. I know a lot of soon to be Fiesta owners are breathing a sigh of relief that the new 2011 Ford Explorer will be able equipped with such technology. The only question we have now is, will you be able to disable it or will it always be on?

 

Be sure to check out TheCarConnection's take on Ford's new feature here.