Vehicle rollaways
can occur when drivers exit the vehicle with the engine is running and the
transmission not in “Park.”resulting in a surprisingly number of accidents injuries and even deaths.
Some studies suggest there is a correlation with keyless entry and push button start system and the increase frequency of rollaway vehicle incidents. The engineers at Ford are introducing a new feature beginning with every 2017 Ford Fusion which engages special software called
“Return to Park” when it detects the customer’s intent to exit the vehicle.
When Ford was designing
the 2017 Fusion and implementing the rotary gear shift dial, engineers realized
there was an opportunity to address the problem of rollaways by designing smart
software to assist the driver and reduce the potential for accidents under
certain conditions.
This technology is
designed to automatically shift your vehicle into ‘park’ when any of the
following conditions occur: You turn the vehicle off, you open the driver’s
door with your seat belt unlatched and the vehicle is stationary, or your seat
belt is unlatched while the driver’s door is open and the vehicle is
stationary.
“When we decided to go
with the new rotary shifter for the 2017 Ford Fusion, the team all sat together
in a room to see what additional customer benefit we could bring to the table,”
says Mark Zyskowski, global e-shift systems technical expert, “We thought about
what we could add without getting in the way of normal day-to-day scenarios,
and all agreed that a feature to help confirm Park is selected when exiting the
vehicle seemed really worthwhile.”