Connect with us

Opinion

Ford Incorporates A.I. into New Trucks to Assist in Infuriating Task

It’s a nice feature, but how far are we willing to let A.I. infiltrate our lives?

There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the incorporation of artificial intelligence into our everyday lives, particularly as this integration appears to be on the tracks, fueled up, and picking up steam.

But, thankfully, before our new robot overlords completely dismantle society for their own good, we are going to be able to task early versions of this technology with performing some of the more menial tasks that life has to offer.

Like lining up the ball hitch to your trailer when it’s time to hit the road.

The Pro Trailer Hitch Assist feature available on the F-150 and F-Series Super Duty uses radars and a camera to spot a trailer, then controls the speed and steering of the vehicle to drive semi-autonomously toward it as the driver simply presses a button on the dashboard.

Ford built the system using narrow artificial intelligence to scan thousands of videos of trailers in a variety of shapes and sizes in different lighting and weather conditions so the software could learn what they look like and where their hitch couplers are usually located.

This could be a major boon for Ford as a company.

“All the software development was done in-house by our engineers,” Ford technology spokesman Alan Hall told Fox News Digital during a demonstration of the feature at the New York International Auto Show.

Ford has received 60 patents for the technology so far and has several more pending, Hall said.

And the machine will continue to learn…but only if drivers opt to allow it to keep tabs on them.

Hall said the feature already works with most trailer designs, but that the software will continue to be updated with imagery collected from further testing and the real world.

Owners can opt in to provide videos recorded by their trucks, which will help expand the capabilities to identify even more types of trailers in various environments.

Hall said the data is entirely anonymized and not linked to a particular vehicle or location, and participation is not mandatory to use the feature. New versions of the software will periodically be sent to the trucks via over the air updates for free as they are completed.

I suppose that the new moral line on A.I. is somewhere between Skynet and having to back into our trailers manually.

Become an insider!

Sign up for our free email newsletter, and we'll make sure to keep you in the loop.

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it, please mark it as spam. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.