VIDEOS
Video: 2017 Ford Super Duty Towing Technology video interview
By Cars.com Editors
September 29, 2015About the video
PickupTrucks.com's Mark Williams interviews Ford Motor Company’s Driver Assistance Electronics Supervisor, Jennifer Shaw, at the 2015 State Fair of Texas.
Transcript
(upbeat rugged music) We're here at the 2015 State Fair of Texas, where we've just seen from Ford, the world premier of the new Super Duty. The 2017 Super Duty for the first time. If you haven't seen our video yet @pickuptrucks.c
om, make sure you see it. Plenty of new technology and all new truck, and very impressive at that. But one of the coolest technologies that we found on this new Super Duty is in the towing department. In fact, seven different cameras are now being used in order to make it safer for us to tow small or big loads. And who I have here with me now is Jennifer Shaw. Jennifer, give me your title and talk to me about how this technology got into this Super Duty. So I'm the Driver Assistance Electronics Supervisor at Ford. And when we first started thinking about what technology we wanted to put in the new Super Duty a few years ago, we really focused on our customer. So what does this specific towing customer really need? And you can throw a lot of technology at a product, but what we want is for it to be useful for this customer. We know that they're very proficient at towing. They do a lot of it. And so we tried to think about how we could use cameras and radar and various other technologies to really help them with towing. So talk to us about that radar and cameras. How many cameras are on this? Are possible to be on this new Super Duty? Up to seven cameras. So where at it? So let's count through those. Okay. So there's one in the front grill. That's a forward facing camera provides a wide angle view. So you can see around corners. It's also used in our 360 degree camera system. There is one camera in each side view mirror. Those cameras. That's three. Those cameras are not only used for 360 camera, but they're used for an all new feature that we call trailer reverse guidance. And that allows you to see some extended views of your trailer as you're backing up. Then we have number four, which is the forward facing camera up in the rear view mirror, which is used for in-departure warning system. Okay. But that's not actually one that I can Correct. 'Cause one of the features is that I'm able for the forward camera and the tailgate camera I can zoom in and zoom out? Right. The lane departure warning camera is something that the driver will never actually see an image from, but it's always working. It's using machine vision to look at the lines on the road and help you keep yourself in the lane. It just communicates with the computer Exactly And takes care of the driver and passengers. Yep. Exactly. Okay. So I think that gets us to four. That's four. Correct. So camera number five is our CHMSL camera. So we have a camera packaged in the center high-mounted stop lamp. And that's looking into the bed of the truck. It's also great for hitching a fifth wheel or gooseneck trailer. It's actually has a special dynamic guideline on the camera image that will help you when you're hitching up your fifth wheel or your gooseneck. Okay. So we still have two more to go. Yup. So there's your rear view camera in the tailgate. It's very similar to what you see today, but you've got there your dynamic guidelines to help with backing up into your conventional trailer. You've got zoom, like you mentioned. And then the last camera is the trailer camera. So this is a camera that you can mount onto the back of your trailer. And it seamlessly integrated in with the infotainment system in the truck. So with the touch of a button on the touch screen, you can see now what's behind your trailer, not just what's behind your truck. So how does that camera communicate with the actual truck? Is that a plug-in through the trailer hitch? Or is that an app? It's a wired system. So you plug it in through the connector at the back of your truck but the system will come with a bracket and the camera and the wiring. So it's really plug and play for the customer. They just mounted onto the back of their trailer and they're good to go. Very interesting. Is there anything about the plug itself that wouldn't allow more cameras? Why can't I have a camera inside my trailer to keep an eye on that? Well, we're always looking to the future and potentially maybe in the future we would do something like that. Right now, it's the seven cameras that we talked about with the last one being the one at the back of the trailer. That connector is designed for the additional trailer camera. That sounds excellent. We can't wait to get in a truck and give it a test and see how much safer this new technology is gonna be. 360 view for a heavy duty pickup truck is pretty interesting and unique. Yeah, absolutely. We think it's gonna be really helpful for our customers on their job sites. You know, a lot of times there's stuff all around on the ground. You wanna make sure you're not driving over it. So for that, this customer, the heavy duty customer, it's gonna be for their work. Really more than parking and that sort of thing. We wanna thank Jennifer Shaw and her team for bringing this technology to this new Super Duty. No other vehicle in the segment has it. No other pickup truck in the US has it. And very few vehicles on the planet have seven cameras available for that vehicle. If you wanna know more about this new 2017 Super Duty or any other pickup trucks sold in the US go to pickuptrucks.com. (motor vehicle revving)
Show transcript
