Beginning in late-March, engineers at Ford went to work to try to find ways to reduce the exposure of police officers to the virus and came up with a novel software solution that almost entirely bakes it away from the interior of police vehicles.
It was determined that a 15 minute soak at 133 degrees Fahrenheit will kill off over 99% of the virus in the cabin, even on surfaces that might otherwise be missed during a cleaning. The engineers modified the software in the powertrain control and body control computers to enable a new heat soak mode.
While this Ford solution is practical for police vehicles, it’s not likely to be workable for those other applications. Automated vehicles in particular will often be electric vehicles and taxis and ride hailing vehicles can’t wait 15 minutes between every passenger.
Read the article at Forbes.