The route shown is a durability test route, that in most cases is a replica
of some worst case scenario road somewhere in the United States. It was
chosen because of its severity in one regard or another. Ford sent
instrumented vehicles to those roads to record portions of the road's
character and then replicated that road at the Romeo Test Track. The road in
the video is a body/chassis durability route. Every Ford vehicle must pass a
specific set of tests and that durability route is one of the requirements -
ie so many laps of specific route at a specified speed with out failure.
The Transit is Ford's replacement for the ubiquitous Econoline van/bus which
has been the best selling vehicle of its type for many years. The Econoline
Chassis will continue in production as the basis for motorhome, ambulances
etc.
Kenneth Waller
http://www.pentaxphotogallery.com/kennethwaller
----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Stenquist" <pnstenqu...@comcast.net>
To: "Pentax-Discuss Mail List" <pdml@pdml.net>
Sent: Saturday, June 15, 2013 7:52 PM
Subject: Re: The iPhone video and moreThe embargo is lifted on the Times
pieceI did last week. Had a chance to do both the copy and photosfor this
one,so that was a good plus for me and the bank balance. I also shot
about1/3 of the footage for the video on my phone. The overexposedstuff is
from Ford's high priced
shooters:-).http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/automobiles/rough-road-ahead-but-a-robot-driver-takes-it-in-stride.html?ref=automobiles
Thanks Mark. You're right, some of those potholes on 94 are every bit as
punishing, but the 6-inch high concrete curbs on the test track are no
laughing matter. Thankfully, my robot driver was hitting them at a modest
speed. Without saying so directly, Ford folks conveyed an impression that
the tests are being conducted specifically to provide data for companies
like FedEx and UPS. One tech commented that the delivery service drivers
don't slow down for curbs or break for potholes. But the Transit offers a
good balance of fuel efficiency and load capacity. It will probably be a
common sight on our roads in the years to come. It's already a big seller
in Europe.
On Jun 15, 2013, at 6:20 PM, Mark C <pdml-m...@charter.net> wrote:
Nice job, Paul. Very well written and interesting article and the video
is quite good as well. But - you wrote that this was on Ford's torture
test track - it didn't look much worse than I-94 on any day of the
week.... :0 Anyhow - nice article!
Mark
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