Automotive

Ford packs tech inside the new S-MAX Concept

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The Ford S-Max Concept can monitor the driver's heart rate
The unveiling of the Ford S-Max Concept
The Ford S-Max Concept uses the Ecoboost petrol engine
The Ford S-Max Concept can monitor the driver's heart rate
Steering wheel detail of the Ford S-Max Concept
Interior of the Ford S-Max Concept
Seat detail of the Ford S-Max Concept
The Ford S-Max Concept boasts soft leather
The Ford S-Max Concept is the latest iteration of the S-Max line
The Ford S-Max Concept being fabricated
The Ford S-Max Concept having its steering wheel fitted
Door work on the Ford S-Max Concept
The Ford S-Max Concept before finishing
The Ford S-Max Concept before finishing
The Ford S-Max Concept wheel detail
Designers discussing the Ford S-Max Concept
Designers discussing the Ford S-Max Concept
Designers discussing the Ford S-Max Concept vent detail
Fabricating the Ford S-Max Concept
Fitting the OLED headlamps of the the Ford S-Max Concept
Door work on the Ford S-Max Concept
The Ford S-Max Concept awaiting finishing
Rear view of the Ford S-Max Concept awaiting finishing
Finishing the surface of the Ford S-Max Concept
Detailing the Ford S-Max Concept
Detailing the Ford S-Max Concept
The Ford S-Max Concept after finishing
The Ford S-Max Concept after finishing
The Ford S-Max Concept after finishing
The Ford S-Max Concept can monitor the blood glucose level of the driver or passenger
The Ford S-Max Concept uses Ford's new design language
The Ford S-Max Concept has a dart-like profile
Front view of the Ford S-Max Concept
The Ford S-Max Concept's dashboaard
The Ford S-Max Concept showing the feature line
Second row with the center seat up
Second row with the second seat stowed
Tablet dock in the second row
Interior detail of the Ford S-Max Concept
Gearshift knob of the Ford S-Max Concept
Stitching detail of the Ford S-Max Concept
AC vent detail of the Ford S-Max Concept
Door detail of the Ford S-Max Concept
The Ford S-Max Concept's OLED headlamp
The Ford S-Max Concept has car-to-car communications
The driver can control apps by voice command
The original S-Max was introduced in 2006
Car-to-car communications allows the S-Max Concept to avoid accidents
The Ford S-Max Concept can detect pedestrians and brake automatically
The Ford S-Max Concept can assist when backing out of stalls
The Ford S-Max Concept
The Ford S-Max Concept uses the Ecoboost engine
The Ford S-Max Concept interior
The Ford S-Max Concept front seats
Tablet docks in the second row
The Ford S-Max Concept dashboard
The Ford S-Max Concept's Dual View Display
The Ford S-Max Concept sketch
The Ford S-Max Concept sketch
The Ford S-Max Concept sketch
The Ford S-Max Concept sketch
The Ford S-Max Concept sketch
The Ford S-Max Concept sketch
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch showing panoramic roof
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch detailing brake lights
Cutaway sketch of the Ford S-Max Concept color sketch
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch of the interior
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch of the front passenger seat
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch of seating
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch cutaway
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch of dashboard
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch of the dashboard
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch of the cabin arrangement
The Ford S-Max Concept color sketch of seating arrangement
The Ford S-Max Concept unveiling to the media
The Ford S-Max Concept unveiling to the media
The Ford S-Max Concept unveiling to the media
The Ford S-Max Concept unveiling to the media
The Ford S-Max Concept unveiling to the media
Martin Smith, Executive Design Director, Ford of Europe
The Ford S-Max Concept unveiling to the media
The Ford S-Max Concept unveiling to the media
The Ford S-Max Concept unveiling to the media with doors open
The Ford S-Max Concept unveiling to the media
Barb Samardzich, Vice President, Product Development, Ford of Europe
Stephen Odell, Executive Vice President and President of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Ford Motor Company
View gallery - 88 images

Ford Europe has unveiled a car that may one day be able to tell if you’re having a heart attack at the wheel and call for help. Recently rolled out in Cologne, the company's S-Max Concept is said to combine a new style language with a new suite of interactive technologies, that do everything from parking the car entirely under its own control to monitoring the driver’s heartbeat.

The S-Max has been quite successful for Ford since its introduction in 2006, which is pretty good for something that at first glance looks like a hatchback on steroids. Ford says that the latest iteration of its sport activity vehicle, that’s part sporty saloon and part practical people carrier, is marked by the company’s “style-without-compromise ethos” and retains current features of the S-Max line with new designs and digital technology.

As far as style is concerned, the car seems to be a bit conservative for a concept. This is probably because, as Ford puts it, the S-Max "reflects the new face of Ford," so it’s less about flash than about employing the vocabulary of Ford’s new global design style book to act as a showcase.

The S-Max Concept is still obviously an S-Max. It has the same dart-like profile of its predecessors (though with a high-mounted grille with echoes of Aston Martin), swept-back OLED headlamps that are small enough to allow for complex light designs and “infinite” color selection, and a bonnet that blends into the raked front windscreen and over the panoramic glass roof. A feature line in the profile provides a visual backbone for the style, and there’s a high rear end like something off a Fiesta or a Focus. Under the bonnet is the Ford turbocharged 1.5-liter Ecoboost petrol engine with twin-independent variable camshaft timing.

Interior of the Ford S-Max Concept

The interior of the S-Max Concept revolves around a driver-focused cabin that has a spacious feel due to the high-set instrument panel. There’s lots of soft leather with big stitching, and four- to seven-seat configurations, with a center seat in the second row that folds into the floor and two third-row seats that fold flush.

However, the attention grabber is the digital technology. First, there’s the Advanced Active Park Assist with perpendicular parking capability, which is able to control steering, gear selection and fore and aft movement. According to Pim van der Jagt, executive technical leader, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering, it’s a completely automatic system where you tell the car to park itself and it pulls into the stall. “All you have to do is turn off the ignition, get out of the car, and lock it,” says van der Jagt.

If your nerves managed to sit through the car going in, the S-Max Concept can also help getting out again with its Park Out Assist with Cross Traffic Alert. This system scans the area behind the car and alerts drivers to approaching traffic during that horrible period when you’re backing out, but can’t see anywhere except straight behind you because of the huge vans that are parked on either side of your car.

Once you've pulled out, the S-Max Concept’s Ford Intelligent Protection System with Pre-Collision Assist comes into play, which uses radar and cameras to warn of pedestrians in built-up areas and can even apply brakes automatically at the last second.

The Ford S-Max Concept is the latest iteration of the S-Max line

Another feature of the S-Max Concept is its car-to-car communication. This uses Wi-Fi to send data back and forth between cars and road infrastructure to provide updates of road conditions and to warn of such hazards, such as a car going the wrong way or one that’s broken down in a blind curve. The car can even respond by itself, by braking or pulling off the road to avoid collisions.

The S-Max Concept’s infotainment system uses Ford SYNC with MyFord Touch to provide wireless internet access, and there is a large library of apps available. Meanwhile, Sync Applink lets the driver access voice-control smartphone apps.

On the dashboard, the S-Max Concept has a Dual View Display, which provides different display images to the driver and front passenger. While the driver sees a simple display of important information that is designed for minimal distraction, the passenger can watch a movie. For rear passengers, the back of the front seats have tablet docks for easy viewing.

And then there’s Ford’s pair of party pieces for the S-Max Concept. First, the ECG Heart Rate Monitoring Seat, which continuously monitors and records the driver’s heart rate. Ford is presenting this as a time saver that allows drivers to keep an eye on their heart health without expensive and time-consuming doctor office visits. The company says that, in the future, the seat will be able to detect a heart attack or similar episode, notify emergency services, and get the car off the road.

Second is the Glucose Level Monitoring, which uses a sensor and transmitter fob to continuously measure blood sugar levels in the driver or a passenger and sends alerts if the levels fall dangerously low.

Source: Ford

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4 comments
Slowburn
If the car can put itself into and back out of a tight perpendicular parking place without help from the driver having it do it without the driver in the car would be a nice option. I can count how many time I have gotten back to my truck and found somebody parked so close to me that I cant get the door open.
JDS
Gorgeous car and a definite "I'd buy it". Unfortunately, Ford, an American Company, has never chosen to give us Americans a chance to even SEE an S-Max. WHY the hell keep your best overseas. We finally got the C Max last year but it's too damned small.
JDS
Huh? "four- to seven-seat configurations, with a center seat in the second row that folds into the floor and two third-row seats that fold flush."
There is NO third row! The entire seating package needs to fold into the floor with the exception of the front seats to make the car practical as a sporting vehicle...able to haul lots of camping gear, etc. The way the car in the pics looks, it would not accommodate much.
Mestengo Hidalgo
Cool driver monitoring concepts. Add a driver constipation density monitor and I'll queue up for a buy.