Behold Ford's Futuristic Shopping Cart

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

This author absolutely loves Ford Europe’s extracurricular mobility projects, in the same way someone might enjoy Tommy Wiseau’s The Room or watching Orson Welles’ drunken wine advertisements for Paul Masson.

While certainly not as good as the automaker’s noise-canceling doghouse, lane-keeping bed or slow-moving Carr-E puck (my all-time favorite “mobility innovation”), Ford’s new shopping cart isn’t far behind in terms of accidental amusement. It just happens to have enough practical applications to avoid being hysterical.

However, like the other aforementioned Ford projects, the shopping cart is really more of a clever way for the automaker to tout its advanced driving systems than a solution for supermarket shoppers.

The doghouse provided an avenue for the company to mention the noise-canceling features available in the Edge SUV, the bed gave a semi-helpful visual for what lane-keeping was, and the cart does the same for automatic emergency braking. Ford has no intention of selling it to supermarkets (for now), especially since no business would splurge on the associated technologies just to help prevent minor dings in the parking lot.

In the spot, Ford’s interviewees fault children for the majority of shopping cart mishaps, suggesting that “it’s impossible to control children” when they take hold of one. While a responsible guardian (assuming those still exist) should be sufficient in minimizing the issue, Ford’s “trolley” utilizes something akin to the company’s Pre-Collision Assist to automatically halt the cart before it collides with shelving, an automobile, or some unaware geriatric who just wanted to buy a loaf of bread without being mowed down by a 10-year-old.

“Parents often dread supermarket shopping because they are trying to get a job done and kids just want to play,” parenting expert Tanith Carey, author of What’s My Child Thinking? Practical Child Psychology for Modern Parents, said in Ford’s press release. “Children love to copy adults and experiment with feeling more in control. When they push a trolley, to their minds, it’s like they are behind the wheels of a car — with long, wide supermarket aisles as their racetrack.”

Well, let’s be sure to stop that kind of thinking from manifesting itself into play. We don’t want kids trying to take control of something in their own lives or, God forbid, imagining that they’re having fun behind the wheel of an automobile. Lock it down, Ford.

The concept stops short of being truly funny, but the design of the car is another story — as it appears to be made out of paper, lightweight plastic panels and small-gauge PVC piping.

We also hate to break it to Ford Europe, but carts already exist that can stop themselves using a mechanical bar that applies pressure to the wheels whenever someone removes their hand. Some stores even have carts that sense when they’re taken beyond the property and automatically lock their wheels.

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Igloo Igloo on Apr 30, 2019

    Seems to me the entire point of the exercise was to provide a "visual" picture of said Ford automobile technology. Excellent way to get people who would not normally pay attention to a car advertisement to 'pay attention' to a car advertisement! Well done.

  • Chris Powers Chris Powers on May 01, 2019

    Who is the Old Navy model in the video?

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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