A safety-inspired Mercury concept - with heavy Ford Freestyle undertones - takes the stage at this January's Detroit auto show. The concept vehicle will be known as the Meta One, and it will be outfitted with a raft of safety features such as a lane-departure warning system and Roll Stability Control, which Ford says it will put on more than half a million of its vehicles by the end of 2005. The lane-departure system uses cameras to sense the striping on the road, and alerts drivers who pass outside the lanes with visual, aural or vibrational warnings. Mercury's concept also will show off a new Collision Mitigation by Braking system that uses cameras and radar to predict when a crash may occur and to prep the vehicle for the impact by up to five mph by applying the brakes. The production Mercury version of the Ford Freestyle is due in 2007.

thecarconnection.com

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