Ford Test Track

Daddy Troy: Welcome back to Gear Daddy I am host Daddy Troy today DadLabs is on the roads in Dearborn, Michigan with the Ford Test Track and Ford is going to allow us to test drive some cars and look at their new safety features. Dady Brad: I am joined today by Sue Cischke, Group Vice President for sustainability environment and safety engineering. Sue thanks for having us. Sue Cischke: Thank you we are delighted that you are here. Daddy Brad: Now one thing that as parents we all dreaded the day when our kids are going to get behind the wheel and they will drive, drive, drive. Sue Cischke: Right. Daddy Brad: Talk about your new system that's coming out to help parents be comfortable with their kids driving. Sue Cischke: What would parents like to have, they have a little bit more control while teens are still learning on driving and we introduced My Key and what My Key does is it gives the parents a little bit more encouragement to help teens drive safely. Number one they can control top speed of the vehicle. They can monitor that from 55, 65 or 80 and they can set that when they put the key in and program it. They can control the volume of the radio and that's something you know that could be a little distracting when you get lot of teens in the car, and more importantly if they are not buckled up, you could stop the radio from working totally. Daddy Troy: So here we are actually on the test track, they have given us a security escort out there. This test track is just like almost like an airport they have a control tower and you can see behind me right here they have got Volvo S80 it's equipped with the front collision warning system. So I am going to drive the 40 km/hr down towards that inflated car and when I get near it the car is going to alert me that I am about to be in a crash, there is an audio alert as well as a visual flashing alert and then I will be able to divert the car. Hopefully, I will be able to divert the car away from the crash. So here we go. Drive, okay. Oh goodness. So I am encouraged to drive right out of car. Here we are the car coming at us, okay that's not comfortable at all here it comes, well okay. We also tested for its lane departure warning, it's an alert system that tells you when your car starts to drift out of your lane. You will either hear a sound or you will feel vibration in your seat or the steering wheel. We also tested the blind spot information system. Now it does a lot of the things. One of the ones that I particularly like what is been you are backing out of a parking space it alerts you that someone is actually coming down the lane behind you. Daddy Brad: Sue thank you so much for talking to us today. Sue Cischke: Okay, great nice talking with you. Daddy Brad: So you think maybe I can go out and do a little driving. Sue Cischke: Oh do that, as long as you have your seat belt on. Daddy Brad: Oh absolutely, oh that's all for you, see you at the lab, go at dadlabs.com and tell us what you think about all these great safety features on the Ford car. Take care.