Ajzride
Well-known member
- Thread starter
- #1
I've decided to launch a new thread and branch off from the existing thread on a "hack for hands free driving" because that is not really what I am interested in. What I am interested in is getting lane centering to work like it should. For reference, my wife has a 2021 Mustang Mach E which has the same technology (co-pilot 360 active prep) and it works wonderfully, I do not have any of the issues in that car that I have in my F150. My issues are two fold:
1) If I keep my hands comfortable on the wheel and don't fight the lane centering motion, it constantly beeps to put my hands back on the wheel. If I do apply enough pressure to keep it happy, I feel like I am wrestling with the car and my arms literally get tired after about twenty minutes on the interstate.
2) If I am fighting the wheel enough to keep the nanny features happy, that car hugs the right line very close. It looks like about 2" from the right line and 30" from the left line when using my side view mirrors and pointing them at the rear tires. If I quit fighting the car it will ease onto the right line, then move itself back to center and stay then, then of course it complains for me to keep my hands on the wheel.
Since I don't have any issues in the Mach E, I know it's a fixable problem, and it does not seem to be consistent. Some people don't seem to have any problems, and looking at the "hack" thread there are some people who can go completely hands free with only a 13oz weight, whereas I can't even get it to stop nagging at me with two hands and a 2 pound weight hanging on the steering wheel. At some point Ford probably will provide a software fix if enough of us take our trucks in for service so the issue gets visibility. In the meantime I've taken inspiration from the hands free hack thread to try and mitigate my problems.
For reference, this is how I normally hold the wheel (9:00 and 3:00) on the interstate if there is any traffic or curves on the road:
If it is an exceptionally long straight and there is no traffic (I drive a lot after midnight) then I will place my hand at 6:00
Based on the hack video, I ran some trials at 3:30 in the morning on an empty stretch of toll road. First I added a 2 pound weight at 4:00 just like the video (the video used a 3 pound weight, but I couldn't find one locally, I have one on order):
That did not even get the nanny to stop nagging me even with two hands on the wheel, much less go handsfree.
Next I moved the 2 pound weight to 3:00 on the outside of the steering wheel:
The cut the number of prompts to put my hands on the wheel (which they already were) approximately in half.
Lastly I tried having the weight hang out beside the wheel more so that none of the weight could rest on the wheel, this got me down to about 3 nag screens over 50 miles, which is really good compared to once every 30 seconds i was seeing with no weight, or once a minute with the weight closer to the wheel:
It's been way too long since I took physics to be able to calculate the actual force on the wheel that 2 pound weight is generating hanging off to the side like that, but whatever that comes out to is about 2/3 of the weight required to stop the nag screen, because I'm still using my hands to apply pressure too.
I was hoping others who just want the system to work properly would have some experience they could share, and also hoping to inspire people to arrange service appointments so we can get this on Fords radar.
1) If I keep my hands comfortable on the wheel and don't fight the lane centering motion, it constantly beeps to put my hands back on the wheel. If I do apply enough pressure to keep it happy, I feel like I am wrestling with the car and my arms literally get tired after about twenty minutes on the interstate.
2) If I am fighting the wheel enough to keep the nanny features happy, that car hugs the right line very close. It looks like about 2" from the right line and 30" from the left line when using my side view mirrors and pointing them at the rear tires. If I quit fighting the car it will ease onto the right line, then move itself back to center and stay then, then of course it complains for me to keep my hands on the wheel.
Since I don't have any issues in the Mach E, I know it's a fixable problem, and it does not seem to be consistent. Some people don't seem to have any problems, and looking at the "hack" thread there are some people who can go completely hands free with only a 13oz weight, whereas I can't even get it to stop nagging at me with two hands and a 2 pound weight hanging on the steering wheel. At some point Ford probably will provide a software fix if enough of us take our trucks in for service so the issue gets visibility. In the meantime I've taken inspiration from the hands free hack thread to try and mitigate my problems.
For reference, this is how I normally hold the wheel (9:00 and 3:00) on the interstate if there is any traffic or curves on the road:
If it is an exceptionally long straight and there is no traffic (I drive a lot after midnight) then I will place my hand at 6:00
Based on the hack video, I ran some trials at 3:30 in the morning on an empty stretch of toll road. First I added a 2 pound weight at 4:00 just like the video (the video used a 3 pound weight, but I couldn't find one locally, I have one on order):
That did not even get the nanny to stop nagging me even with two hands on the wheel, much less go handsfree.
Next I moved the 2 pound weight to 3:00 on the outside of the steering wheel:
The cut the number of prompts to put my hands on the wheel (which they already were) approximately in half.
Lastly I tried having the weight hang out beside the wheel more so that none of the weight could rest on the wheel, this got me down to about 3 nag screens over 50 miles, which is really good compared to once every 30 seconds i was seeing with no weight, or once a minute with the weight closer to the wheel:
It's been way too long since I took physics to be able to calculate the actual force on the wheel that 2 pound weight is generating hanging off to the side like that, but whatever that comes out to is about 2/3 of the weight required to stop the nag screen, because I'm still using my hands to apply pressure too.
I was hoping others who just want the system to work properly would have some experience they could share, and also hoping to inspire people to arrange service appointments so we can get this on Fords radar.
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