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Falcon, Falcon Ute and Territory Are First Australian-built Vehicles with Lifesaving Emergency (383)

The freshened Falcon, Falcon Ute and Territory will feature even more innovations by becoming the first Australian-built vehicles with a life-saving feature that can help call emergency services following an accident in which airbags deploy^?.

Ford will quickly roll out the technology, SYNC2 with Emergency Assistance as standard across the range, to other models as part of refreshing the entire line up by 2017

“The new Falcon, Falcon Ute and Territory are our most innovative locally engineered and built models ever,” said Ford Australia Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Service, Graeme Whickman.  “They deliver new technologies, more safety features, and better performance and fuel economy – continuing to lead the adoption of these innovations across our exciting, expanding line up.”

Emergency Assistance completes a comprehensive safety package on the vehicles, which includes Ford’s Intelligent Safety System – a combination of the latest-generation advanced crash sensors, that combine with state-of-the-art restraint systems, including a suite of airbags, to provide outstanding levels of occupant safety.

“Ford’s Emergency Assistance has already proved itself as a life-saver overseas and we expect our Falcon and Territory customers will appreciate the reassurance that comes with this technology,” Whickman said.

The system is designed to deliver critical information directly to 000 operators, indicating that a Ford vehicle has been involved in an accident advising the vehicle’s GPS location before opening the line for hands-free communication with the vehicle occupants.

Ford SYNC2 with Emergency Assistance uses the driver’s own paired mobile phone via Bluetooth^®* and runs in the background once the phone is properly paired with SYNC2 and is within mobile phone range.

Importantly for customers, SYNC2 with Emergency Assistance has no additional contracts or subscriptions to maintain the service. It’s free for the life of the car.

After the one-time setup, unless turned off, Emergency Assistance runs in the background each time the driver enters the vehicle with their phone and the phone is turned on and successfully paired via Bluetooth^®* to the vehicle.

Should an accident occur in which airbags deploy or the emergency fuel pump shutoff is activated, SYNC2 with Emergency Assistance uses SYNC2’s hands-free phone capabilities to attempt to connect the driver directly with a 000 operator through the paired phone.

If an accident occurs while a connected phone is being used for a normal call, SYNC2 with Emergency Assistance system can end that call and dial the emergency services. Also, incoming phone calls will not interrupt communication between vehicle occupants and the 000 operator.

Once the call is established, if occupants are able, they can leave the vehicle and stay connected with the 000 operator by taking the phone with them as they move away.

Should the vehicle occupants not be able to communicate with the 000 operator, an introductory message tells the emergency operator that an accident has occurred and the system can provide GPS location digits in the voice message.

The extent to which users have to maintain Emergency Assistance is limited to the one-time setup. There are no additional costs or subscriptions associated with the service.

A prompt occurs the first time a phone is paired with the system that asks if the owner wants to set SYNC2 Emergency Assistance for all paired phones. Once turned on, it remains that way unless the customer decides to turn the feature off.

Emergency Intervention

Emergency Assistance will only activate should the vehicle’s airbags deploy or the emergency fuel pump shutoff indicating a significant impact or roll-over has occurred.

Before initiating the 000 emergency call, the vehicle’s SYNC2 system will provide a 10-second window to allow the driver or passenger to decide whether to cancel the call via the physical buttons on the dashboard. If not manually cancelled within the 10-second window, SYNC2 will place the 000 emergency call.

Best-ever Falcon

SYNC2 is Ford’s latest in-car connectivity system that launches on Falcon and Territory later this year bringing cutting-edge technology to Ford’s local heroes. SYNC2 offers Falcon and Territory customers a new level of in-car connectivity with:

Voice control using Australian natural language voice commands to control:

• Phone
• Music
• Radio
• Climate controls
• Navigation (if fitted)
• High-resolution 8” colour touch screen with four colour-coded quadrants for easy feature recognition
• Emergency Assistance
• “One-shot” GPS for destination entry via voice control, where fitted

SYNC with Emergency Assistance is already available on Ford Kuga, Focus, Fiesta and EcoSport, with Falcon Ute, Falcon and Territory joining the line-up from December 2014.

Read more on the Territory

Read more on the Falcon

Read more on the Falcon Ute

^?Provided mobile phone is paired and within range

^*Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG., Inc. and is used under licence.