Here’s How The Adaptive Suspension In The 2020 Lincoln Aviator Tries To Save Your Spine

It uses a suite of sensors and cameras to read the road ahead

2020 Lincoln Aviator

The system uses sensors to detect potholes.

As American drivers, have to face up to the fact that our roads, on the whole, suck. Particularly in areas with harsh climates, the roads are riddled with cracks that will shake the fillings from your skull and potholes that can shatter your spine. With the 2020 Lincoln Aviator, though, Lincoln has a system called Adaptive Suspension with Road Preview. As its name suggest, it attends to detect the road ahead to know when it’s about to hit potholes.

Using air suspension in a luxury car is hardly new. However, the adaptive suspension comes with either the standard coil springs or the optional Air Glide suspension. Lincoln says this system uses 12 sensors throughout the vehicle to read the road ahead. It will keep an eye on different conditions like steering, acceleration, body movement and braking, and adjust the air suspension accordingly. If the 2020 Lincoln Aviator sees it’s about to hit a pothole, for instance, it will firm up the shock absorbers so it doesn’t crash when it does hit. The company states it can read the road up to 500 times per second to find imperfections. When it sees one, it will change the suspension settings up to 100 times per second.

Road Preview uses a forward-facing camera mounted near the rearview mirror. It will watch the road 50 feet in front of the car to inform the adaptive suspension of incoming bumps between 2 and 8 inches high.

Optional powertrains

Apart from the suspension, the 2020 Lincoln Aviator comes with two powertrain options. The standard 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V6 with 400 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque starts at $52,840. Prices go up from there, with the “Grand Touring” hybrid models running up to $89,540. That’s for a Black Label model. The 2020 Lincoln Aviator will arrive in dealerships later this summer.

Lincoln published a video showing how the system works below: