The all new 2013 Ford Fusion is coming out with unprecedented driver assist technologies usually found only in luxury cars costing twice as much.

“These new sensing technologies help extend the driver’s own senses, providing a level of assistance never before available to the family sedan buyer,” said Adrian Whittle, Ford Fusion chief engineer. “The new Fusion launches this year with these advanced technologies – making them more affordable and available than ever before.”

Lane Keeping System: This system uses a forward-facing camera that scans the road surface ahead looking at lane markings and can evaluate if the car is starting to drift out of the lane. It alerts the driver by vibrating the steering wheel. If the driver doesn’t react, the system will provide it’s own input to the steering nudging the car back into the lane.

Driver Alert System: This used the same front-facing camera that the lane keeping system uses to detect if the driver is getting sleepy. If it does think the driver is getting drowsy, it will give a series of alerts that suggest the driver stop and rest. The alerts include a coffee cup icon (no energy drink icon?) on the instrument cluster.

Pull-Drift Compensation: This system is built into the electric power steering. This will help the driver compensate for a road that leans one way or the other and for heavy crosswinds. This will keep your arms from getting tired if it’s really windy out.

Adaptive Cruise Control: For those who have never experienced adaptive cruise before, you are in for a treat. If you are on the highway and come into heaver traffic or just come up on that guy that seems to be going 3mph slower then you. Instead of kicking off the cruise until it’s safe to pass and then getting around him, with adaptive cruise all you do is stay behind the slower car until it’s safe to pass. Once you pull into the faster lane the adaptive cruise will accelerate back up to your set speed. Ford’s new system on the 2013 Fusion adds collision warning to this package which if your following distance is shrinking too quickly, it will warn you to take evasive action (such as braking hard or steering out of the way).

Active Park Assist: This is sort of the auto-park system. You still have to use the gas pedal and brake, but the car will (using sensors) determine if there is enough room to parallel park and if there is it will steer the car right into place. Just make sure you hit the brakes because you will hit the car behind or ahead of you if you don’t. (Just ask Leo Laporte about that one). I’ve used this system on a Ford before and it’s an excellant system. I can’t parallel park to save my life, but the car I was driving could.

Blind Spot Information with Cross-traffic alert: This system uses the sensors and cameras to warn you if there is another car in your blind spots on either side of the car. There are indicator lights in the side-view mirrors that light up if something is beside you when you go to change lanes. When backing out of a parking space or driveway, the same sensors can see vehicles coming down the aisle and the back-up-camera gives you a nice view directly behind the rear bumper.

For more information on the new 2013 Ford Fusion, check out FordFusionStory.com