Ford’s new Duratec 35 V6 flexible engine is a 3.5-liter 265 horsepower engine being introduced in the Ford Edge, Lincoln MKX and MKZ, Ford Five Hundred, and the Mazda CX-9. Ford projects the engine will power as many as 20% of its vehicles by the end of the decade.

The engine features low exhaust emissions, and is flexible enough to incorporate many technologies including frontor rear-wheel drive, hybrid capability, gasoline direct injection, and turbo-injection. It is also capable of passing the Partial Zero Emission Vehicles (PZEV) standards, put in place by the state of California, and considered the strictest in the country.

DaimlerChrysler’s Car-2-X Communication system radios details of critical situations detected by a car’s onboard sensors to following cars. (DaimlerChrysler)

Accident Avoidance

Carmakers today are focusing more than ever on safety features that help drivers before, during, and after an accident. While accident prevention is the ultimate goal, crashes happen, and auto companies are using advanced technologies that help make more accidents minor, rather than major.

The first step in providing the best safety features is crash testing, and today, automakers are using advanced crash-test dummies and data acquisition techniques to determine how their cars — and the passengers — will fare in an accident. GM has begun using new anthropomorphic test dummies that feature internal data recorders capable of collecting 10,000 samples of crash data per second for each of the 24 data channels. Since the dummies are not encumbered by many pounds of wires, they move more freely in a crash, similar to the way a person would move. Avoiding a crash is the next step, and one that involves warning systems, night vision, and stability control. DaimlerChrysler has tested vehicles equipped with the Car-2-X Communication system that radios details of critical situations detected by a car’s onboard sensors to following cars. Conditions such as fog, black ice, or obstacles in the road such as brokendown cars and fallen trees can be sent from one car to another using the system. Using wireless LAN technology, the system enables cars to act as both transmitters and receivers. The cars establish an ad-hoc radio network to send warnings to other vehicles within a radius of about 1,600 feet. For vehicles outside that range, the cars act as relays to pass on warnings.