Ford has started sharing its own car data—which includes airbag activations, emergency braking, and fog light usage—with other manufacturers. These signals are a good indication of something problematic on the road, according to Engadget. Once that information has been sent to the cloud, it can be redistributed to other drivers who are taking a similar route. According to Ford, these alerts can also be passed on to emergency services, increasing their general awareness and shortening response times.
The information is more useful, however, if it’s being shared with other companies. Because of this, the data for Road Safety initiative is also involved in the initiative, meant to create a “Safety-Related Traffic Information (SRTI) ecosystem” that benefits all drivers. Last month, a five-year agreement had been struck between multiple car manufacturers, component suppliers, road traffic authorities, EU member states, and location technology providers, according to the article.
According to the article, the innovation works a bit like Waze’s accident reporting feature, but without the need for drivers to manually submit or verify incidents. “Road-safety data sharing ecosystems are more effective the more vehicles and telematics sources they include,” Peter Geffers, a Ford manager for connected vehicles said. “Extended the benefits of this technology to those who do not drive Ford cars represents a significant step forward.”