Ford’s new onboard navigation feature will make users of other systems envious

Ford has designed a new onboard navigation system that’s potentially better than even Google Maps or Waze.

In addition to the usual varying factors all navigation systems consider, Ford has added some ‘real-world scenario’ criteria that other companies haven’t thought of including.

It is potentially a huge leap forward for this type of technology.

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The things Ford’s new navigation system is taking into consideration

Most equivalent apps and systems calculate distance, traffic, and weather.

But Ford takes it one step further by adding a lot of factors that determine the route complexity.

Among other things, it considers average vehicle speeds, intersections, roundabouts, highway merges, tunnels, roads with difficult conditions, bridges, and crash statistics.

A good example of this would be a scenario that includes a road that’s ordinarily fast and smooth, but perhaps it floods easily or becomes slippery as soon as the weather changes.

In essence, Ford is trying to add one-off, black swan factors that a human driver who’s familiar with that bit of road might know, but other systems don’t.

Who’s winning the ‘patent war’?

BYD is becoming a serious automaker.

Just this year, they’ve launched an SUV that can ‘swim’ in unbelievably deep water, and a supercar that can dance.

And yet, when asked what the biggest strength of the company is, the answer that BYD’s VP Stella Li provided was surprising.

“We’re an engineering company,” Li told Top Gear.

“We file 32 patents every day.”

This answer may sound ‘nerdy’ but it isn’t, automakers are rushing to file patents every day.

They do it because they know the automotive game is no longer about who’s got the most powerful engines, now it’s all about who’s got the best technology.

This is why Ford has gone to extreme lengths to file this patent and detail (above) exactly how the system might work.

This is because, that way, they know Google and Waze can take inspiration, but they can’t copy it.