Ford has a collision mitigation system that reduces the smashing-into-the-rear-of-another-vehicle type of a crash.
Ford's Collision Warning with Brake Support uses radar to detect preceding vehicles that are moving ahead in the roadway. The system warns the driver of this danger with both an auditory and visual alert. The system will also pre-charge the vehicle's brakes and engage an electronic brake assist system to help the driver stop more quickly.
This system is combined with Ford's adaptive cruise control (ACC), so normally, the car will slow down when a target vehicle appears and keep back by a set interval. But excessive speed or a sudden slow-down of a lead vehicle may lead to a crash situation.
When the system detects that a collision is imminent, it warns the driver with an auditory warning and with a group of red lights projected near the bottom of the windscreen. The brake support is also activated, which enables quicker and harder deceleration.
Ford's Collision Warning with Brake Support only detects moving and slowing vehicles, not stopped vehicles. 
And similar to other systems, Ford's system can't react to other objects such as light poles, animals, or road debris.
Yeah, I know, boring: every luxury carmaker has a similar crash mitigation system.
But Ford evaluated their collision mitigation system in a rather unusual way.
Ford engineers took what they called the "Mother of All Road Trips." This was a 25 state, 60,000 mile evaluation of their radar-based technologies including their adaptive cruise control and collision mitigation system. But that's not all.
Ford decided it wouldn't be prudent to test their collision mitigation system with actual vehicles. Instead, Ford engineers used balloon-shaped cars to simulate target vehicles.
By using the balloon cars, the Ford system engineers were better able to test the limits of their collision mitigation system without excessive risk to the vehicles or the test drivers.
The balloons are made of a tarp-like material, filled with air, and weigh approximately 40 lbs. About a dozen balloon cars were used in different sizes to test the precision of the radar.
Judging from the video, it appears that punting a balloon car with a real vehicle has its appeal.
The collision warning system is available on the 2010 Taurus, Lincoln MKS and MKT.
Albert Austria, Senior Engineer, Edmunds, Inc.
billt9 says:
05:39 PM, 10/13/09
you guys posted this like 2 years ago with this balloon.
But without the video.
estreka says:
10:37 PM, 10/13/09
I want one of those balloons.
zoomzoomn says:
05:07 AM, 10/14/09
Why are we wasting all of this money engineering crash avoidance systems? Why not just build the balloon cars!?! That would be sweet. You'd be hitting stuff just for the fun of it! :)