Ford Self-Braking Shopping Cart

Errant shopping carts are machines of destruction and injury when wielded by overeager children or oblivious adults. Plus, aside from making them out of red plastic, shopping carts have advanced about as much as toilet paper has. As part of Ford’s Interventions Series, the “Self-Braking Trolley” utilizes the automaker’s Pre-Collision Assist technology to make unwanted contact between shopping carts and shoppers (and their cars) a thing of the past. The streamlined cart employs a sensor and applies the brakes automatically if the cart is headed for an object or a person. Though it’s only a prototype, the cart shows how Ford takes its automotive tech to make everyday products better. Now, if it could just stop your toddler from tossing bag after bag of Gummi Bears in when you’re not looking.