Ford’s all-new Ford Focus is providing peace of mind for Britain’s drivers by spotting the many thousands of potholes on the UK road network.

It’s a problem which is seemingly on the rise, with a pothole repaired every 21 seconds in England and Wales in the last year, our cars are taking a battering in the midst of a ‘pothole crisis.

With council budgets stretched, the road networks are unlikely to improve significantly over the coming years, so Ford’s innovative technology is sure to be a welcome boost.

“Our engineers are always searching for the roughest roads to really test our suspension to the limit, but more and more we’re noticing that the rough roads are finding us,” said Guy Mathot, Ford Focus vehicle dynamics supervisor. “Potholes are a problem that isn’t going away anytime soon, but with our advanced suspension technology for all-new Focus, we’ve been able to reduce their impact.”

The technology senses when a wheel is falling into a pothole and then the suspension is altered accordingly to limit how far the wheel drops. As the tyre and wheel do not fall into the pothole, there is no harsh jolt or exit from the hole in the road. The technology is not just limited to one wheel, the signal will also warn the following rear wheel to make similar adjustments.

The technology is being employed in the new Ford Focus, which is arriving in the UK this summer. The Continuously Controlled Damping is designed to make all journeys smoother, but will be tested to its limit on the UK’s worsening roads.

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