Pretty much all modern cars these days beep incessantly in the name of safety. Whether you’re getting too close to another car while parking, or trying to change lanes with a car in the way, new vehicles love to fire off lots of generic cues. While you may not give the nature of those warnings a lot of thought, Ford apparently has, and is now making an effort to improve their sophistication.
The car manufacturer has been testing out its Directional Audio Alerts that were designed to play a corresponding sound that comes from the direction of the potential hazard. That means that if you’re about to pull out of your parking spot and there’s a cyclist coming up on your left, it would play a bicycle bell sound from the back left side of the car. Ford’s initial demo of its safety feature also showed that it can play footsteps to represent a pedestrian and vehicle noises for cars.
