The car is a Ford Mustang Mach-E, which this month has become the first vehicle with hands-free driving capabilities on sale in Britain - and the first for the whole of Europe as well. It is a milestone in the shift to autonomous driving, even if, for now, it is limited to motorways.
Ford is now hoping it can persuade customers to pay for the technology. Sixty per cent of the owners of the 2023 version of the battery electric Mach-E had used it since it was approved by regulators in April, Ford said. The next few weeks will be the first test of whether the feature, named BlueCruise, offers enough to persuade British drivers to part with the £18 a month it costs to enable it.
"We're the first and only [manufacturer] doing this in Europe," said Jack Baker, a manager charged with rolling out the service. Ford was hoping at first to pick up "seasonal use" customers such as people making "one journey in the summer", he said at the company's Stratford office.
Under UK regulations, handsfree mode is available only on motorways, with physical barriers separating cars from oncoming traffic. The regulations for now also ban automated lane changing.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 08, 2023 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 08, 2023 من The Guardian.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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