2020 Ford Bronco will pack plenty of off-road tech, leak attests
The most notable feature may be an off-road navigation system.
If we had to choose one future vehicle's Halloween costume, it would be the 2020 Ford Bronco going as a leaky faucet. Why? Because the internet can't get enough information about the highly anticipated off-road SUV, and there are leaks, patent application images and other rumors aplenty.
The latest drip of information surrounding the Bronco comes from Hagerty, which published information on Tuesday citing an engineer's profile that's working with Ford. While it's nothing too juicy, the profile does claim this engineer has worked on several systems that will be baked into the new Bronco to juice its off-road prowess.
Of them all, off-road navigation is perhaps the neatest. It's already a production system in the Ford Ranger Raptor sold abroad and it leaves digital pinpoints on a map every second that can help drivers find their way back after an off-road stint. The other features outlined in the report haven't been confirmed by Ford, and the automaker told Roadshow it doesn't comment on future products.
But, we can speculate alongside this report about what the features may do. They include things like "Adventure Capture," "Convoy Communications," and real-time tire pressure monitoring. The first of these sounds a lot like a a data recording system to capture moments on the trail drivers and passengers want to save and relive. It's not a new technology since many companies and automakers include it for performance recording at a race track, but this would be a nifty application.
Convoy Communications seems to lend itself to the ability for groups of vehicles or owners to chat somehow. The original report speculates it could be for a group of Broncos to communicate with exclusively, perhaps through the FordPass phone app.
Other systems such as the tire pressure monitoring, a rear-seat occupant alert are self-explanatory. One last feature, onboard scales, is also mentioned but it's puzzling as to why this would be included in the Bronco. Then again, none of these features have been confirmed, either.
We'll see the off-road SUV debut sometime next year. And before then, we'll likely learn more about the Bronco.
