Ford's Latest Innovations Bet on America's Continued Love of Cars

This week Ford Motor Company unveiled a handful of technological ideas, like driver-assist features that use radar and sensors to give your car an extra pair of eyes on the road. One feature alerts you before you drive in the wrong direction. Another helps you steer away from an obstacle in situations where it’s too late to apply the brakes. In the time that it takes for the driver to fully recognize that he or she is about to crash, the car is programmed to swerve into safety. Perhaps more exciting is that these features could come as early as the next two years.

Then there’s the sneak peek of finalists from the company’s internal Last Mile Mobility Challenge, which asks employees to dream up ways to get drivers from the car to their final destination. The ideas revealed so far include a self-loading wheelchair for drivers with physical disabilities, a folding electric tricycle that doubles as a shopping cart, and intriguingly, a Segway-hoverboard hybrid that looks somewhat like an oversized Roomba, as TechCrunch keenly observes.