The new frugal nature of American carmakers is making them innovate and this new development is a real spectacle. Tired of crunching cars for safety tests, Ford engineers have developed a unique balloon car made of heavy-duty tarp like material. This is being used to test their new Adaptive Cruise Control with Collision Warning and Brake Support technology. The blue balloon car has a special silver patch of reflective paint at the rear which reflects radar back to the adaptive cruise and collision warning systems in the other test vehicle. These tests help the engineer in setting the timing of these systems to ensure vehicle and occupant safety. Just in case the system messes up and there is a crash, the balloon car takes the hit and saves crashing actual cars or repairing them after an impact.

However, the balloon car costs an amazing U.S $10,000, which is as much as a small hatch. Anyways Ford believes that in the long run the balloon will save them loads of cash. The other benefit of using the balloon car is that human test drivers can be deployed for testing as any impact with the balloon is almost harmless on the test track.