Ford will soon reveal its latest creation - a police car fitted with doors that can stop armor-piercing bullets. If the car maker fulfills its promise, this will be the first car in the world with such impenetrable capacity.
The Detroit-based car manufacturer will integrate these doors on its Police Interceptor SUVs and sedans. As such, these police cars will be the first to meet the requirements of the U.S. Justice Department's ultimate standard for body armor, equal to the protective capacity of a strongly built SWAT team vest.
These doors can stop a .30-caliber bullet shot from an AK-47, a high-powered rifle. It's a more powerful bullet carried only by a select army personnel.
According to a Ford engineer Randy Freburger, they made these special doors at the request of police authorities in the Middle East and Eastern Europe to give them better protection.
"In some places outside the U.S., they face the armor-piercing threat on a daily basis," said Freiburger. "This is the price of entry for those markets," he added.
The car maker has been making factory-installed ballistic panels on police car doors since 2008, but they only provided protection from non-armor piercing bullets and handgun fire. These doors cost approximately $1,500 per piece.
And that's not the only innovation Ford Motor Co. is creating in its cars. In a non-gory and tangentially different way, the Detroit-based car maker is turning its self-driving car into a movie theater.
The company has applied for a patent for a car that incorporates a drop-down projector screen in its self-driving cars. This special screen covers the car windshield completely. The car's passengers can then sit back and relax watching their favorite movies while they are travelling.
But the windshield will only change into a movie screen when the car is in its self-driving mode. Obviously, if it's not, the sounds and images will distract the driver and may cause serious accidents.
