By Steven Symes 
No doubt shelling out a ton of money for a 2024 Ford F-150 late last year, a man in Houston is upset after his truck started randomly braking in traffic. This is just one of the results of vehicles becoming technologically complicated – whoops, we mean advanced – as owners have to deal with a plethora of problems.
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As the guy showed his local news station KPRC 2, the problem arises when he turns on the adaptive cruise control. Something in the system, we don’t know if it’s a sensor or the software, decides there’s an obstacle directly in the truck’s pathway and it applies the brakes, hard.
The warning lights up red on the dash, too, just like if you’re cruising along and the car in front of you just slams on its brakes suddenly. Only there’s nothing there.
We’ve been in cars loaded with sensors when something like a piece of paper blows in front of a camera and triggers an alert. It’s annoying, but this is downright dangerous.
Some would say the guy should just not use his adaptive cruise control. We’re not huge fans of the tech ourselves, but that’s a preference thing. Still, the fact is he paid for that technology in the truck and it’s reasonable for him to expect it actually works.
Ford has struggled with an inordinate number of recalled vehicles and warranty issues recently. It’s something the CEO has even acknowledged is a problem he’s vowing to resolve.
In this case, the KPRC reporter says in a mile, the F-150 slammed on the brakes seven times while adaptive cruise control was active. You can see in the footage traffic was light and they ensured nobody was directly behind the truck before performing the test. It’s not hard to see how that could trigger a serious accident.
Here’s the real kicker: a local Ford dealer reportedly worked on the brand new F-150 for three months, swapping out parts, etc. but with no resolution to the problem. Supposedly Ford is going to buy the pickup back, but after weeks it’s not happening.
Image via Ford