Ford hired a 360 kg bear to test the safety of its pickup truck
Ford decided to demonstrate the capabilities of its new safety package in an unconventional way. To do this, they invited a bear actor named Tag, who weighs about 360 kilograms and previously appeared in the series ‘Yellowstone.’ The bear attacked the Ford F-150 Platinum pickup to show how effective the new security system is.
According to company representatives, Tag shook the vehicle violently, scratched the body, broke a window, and even managed to open the door. This is truly impressive, as the bear itself, its abilities, and how the vehicle withstood such an attack deserve attention. This demonstration turned out to be much more interesting than the usual corporate presentations with graphs and charts.
The only question that arises is: can this technology protect the vehicle from real thieves, not a bear, and can owners access these features without having to share their data with Ford and its partners.
What the safety package actually does
It must be admitted that the technology itself deserves praise. Ford’s safety package includes alerts for interior intrusion, open doors, equipment turned off, and unexpected vehicle movement. Owners can also remotely view camera footage, store recordings in the cloud, block engine startup using the Start Inhibit function, and contact a specialized security center.
While individual features are not revolutionary, together they are significantly better than simply detecting that your vehicle has disappeared from its parking spot.
Is the bear test relevant?
Interestingly, testing the safety package with a bear does not quite match the real threats for most owners. Modern thieves rarely break windows and hope for success. They use relay attacks, signal amplification devices, cloned keys, CAN bus exploits, and other electronic tools that would baffle poor Tag.
Undoubtedly, this demonstration shows that the vehicle can detect interference. However, it would be much more useful to see how the system works against methods used by real thieves. That would be a much more relevant test, albeit less spectacular.
The privacy issue
Another aspect should not be forgotten. Many of these features require owners to participate in the Ford ecosystem with active subscriptions, connecting the vehicle to the network, and collecting data about the vehicle. The irony is that many safety features could exist without collecting so much information from drivers. Unfortunately, the modern automotive industry has decided that connected services and data collection are inextricably linked.
Ford is not alone in this, but it is sad that to access useful features, you have to sacrifice your own data. Otherwise, using the feature is impossible.
So, while the safety package looks genuinely useful, the biggest winner in this story appears to be the bear Tag. He attracted exactly the attention that Ford wanted. And judging by the fact that we are discussing the pickup’s safety system because a bear learned to break into it, he earned every piece of salmon he received afterward.
Photo: Ford
It is worth noting that although the bear test looks like a spectacular marketing stunt, it does not answer the main question: how effective will this system be in real conditions when attackers use modern technologies rather than physical force. Additionally, data privacy issues are becoming increasingly relevant, and many owners may refuse such features, not wanting to share information about their movements. Perhaps in the future, automakers will have to find a balance between safety and privacy to make such systems truly widespread and useful.