Any sports car driver who has ever grimaced at the sound of their front end scraping on the pavement will likely be excited to hear this: Ferrari has filed for a new patent on an auto-braking system that prevents you from running your low-slung supercar into high curbs, parking blocks or other tall road hazards.
The patent, published on August 7 this month and brought to broader attention by CarBuzz, describes a system that uses a sensor to proactively detect objects in the road. Upon detecting a problem, it will signal the driver via a sound; if said driver still doesn’t slow down, the car will brake itself in an effort to avoid damaging what is likely a low-hanging (and expensive) splitter.
The system could theoretically work to stop the car from hitting an obstacle in front, rear or either side. Ferrari calls out that it's particularly useful in parking maneuvers, which is the most obvious use case. That said, bad speed bumps or roads in terrible disrepair could be cause for the system to be of use, too. Additionally, the patent details a system that would send a notification to the car’s infotainment system or to a phone (perhaps to be displayed in Apple CarPlay?) in an effort to warn the driver of an obstacle.
Smart systems that help avoid scraping the front end of an expensive car up are in their infancy right now. For example, both Porsche and Chevrolet (with the Corvette) offer front-axle lift systems that will store GPS locations for where you typically activate the lift, then automatically do so in the future. That means the nose will lift going in and out of your driveway (or other sketchy spots around town) without you needing to remember to push the button. Being able to detect when the nose could scrape and proactively prevent it, however, is a completely new idea.
That said, Ferrari’s patent focuses on the auto-brake system for tall objects, and is not a nose-lift feature. Theoretically, one could take the information provided by the system and then raise the nose to clear the speed bump or object, but that’d be up to the driver.
Per usual with patents, don’t assume this will ever find its way to a production vehicle. It’s definitely a novel idea and could possibly prevent some costly splitter replacements, but it’d need to be close to a fool-proof system. Phantom braking (when a car’s driver assistance system slows the car in error) is one of the more dangerous things a car could do, and being rear-ended in a Ferrari by someone not paying attention would likely be even worse than scraping up the car's chin.
You Might Also Like
Comments