The 2017 Ford Fusion sedan boasts plenty of available active driver assist technologies, including a new feature the automaker calls “Return to Park.”
Evidently, Ford was paying attention when so many Jeep owners experienced rollaway incidents after mistakenly believing they’d left their vehicles in Park.
Gear selection in the refreshed, 2017 Ford Fusion is performed with a rotary dial – hence the need for extra safety precautions. The vehicle is capable of recognizing when the driver most likely intended to leave it in Park but failed to do so, and automatically engaging it. Return to Park springs into action whenever the driver turns the vehicle off, and whenever the vehicle is stationary and both the drivers seat belt and door are unlatched.
“When we decided to go with the new rotary shifter for the 2017 Ford Fusion, the team sat together in a room to see what additional customer benefit we could bring to the table,” says Ford Global E-Shift Systems Technical Expert Mark Zyskowski. “We thought about what we could add without getting in the way of normal day-to-day scenarios, and all agreed a feature to help confirm park is selected when exiting the vehicle seemed really worthwhile.”
The 2017 Ford Fusion’s rotary e-shifter allow for other smart features, as well. For example, any request to shift into Reverse is overridden if the car is going faster than 5 mph, and if the vehicle is shut off while in motion, it will automatically coast in neutral until it drops below 5 mph, at which point Park will be engaged.
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