Truck accelerated from stop and rear ended car in front.

[swngdncr]

I also posted this to the Reddit group, but will cross post here as I can use any and all information that others can share. I was stopped in traffic on a 4 lane road. I'm using one pedal mode, so my foot is not on the break. All of a sudden, the truck takes off, rapidly. I slam on the brakes, but not in time to keep from rear ending the tacoma in front of me. My husband says he has had the truck take off like this when he accidentally hits the resume button on the steering wheel with his arm. I don't recall this ever happening to me. Anyone ever experience anything like this? Will they be able to download any data from the truck that will explain what happened? Shouldn't the truck have recognized there was an obstacle and either not moved or stopped on its own? Again, appreciate any information or advice that would be helpful. BTW, it just updated to bluecruise 1.4 2 days ago.

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[WXman]

I already hated 1 pedal driving. You just gave me another reason.

Anyway, I hope insurance takes good care of you.

 

[Henry Ford]

The most likely scenario is that you hit the accelerator pedal with your foot. This is especially likely if you were reaching for something while you were stopped. I did this once in my old ICE F150 while reaching back to assist a child in the back seat. Thankfully I'd put it in park but it hit the rev limiter before I realized that I was doing it.

I don't usually use BlueCruise to a complete stop. My recollection is you need to press the accelerator pedal to resume motion. Others can verify or correct this.

I have a friend working on a system that would automatically apply brakes in this exact situation. Apparently, it's a really difficult problem to solve due to false alarms...and other issues not relevant to this conversation.

 

[Cobalt Blue]

I had this happen twice within the first month I had my 24 Lariat. But my sudden acceleration was caused by my floor mat. It slides around a lot and will sometimes end up on top of the accelerator. So, I got rid of it.

 

[RocketGhost]

Had you activated cruise control during the drive? If you had not used it, no speed would be set, and hitting the resume button would do nothing. With no speed set, pressing any of the cruise buttons at a complete stop would do nothing (although one scenario I haven't tried would be at a complete stop activate cruise, set speed would be zero, and then increase the set speed, but I suspect you have to be in motion to activate cruise control).

If you had inadvertently turned on cruise while in motion it would be very difficult not to notice, particularly in one-pedal mode since the truck would not decelerate when taking your foot off the pedal.

If you had not activated cruise during the drive, you can eliminate cruise control as a possible cause.

There have been several reports of unintended acceleration. Question for forum members: of the reports, was one-pedal active in every instance?

All vehicles have a crash data recorder that stores data at the moment of the crash and a time period leading up to it. It records such variables as speed, seat belt usage, accelerator and brake pedal application, and more. In your instance the impact was relatively minor and it may not have detected it as a crash and not stored the data in permanent memory. I would inquire with the dealer to find out what they can download. It's not something they routinely do so they might not be knowledgeable. However, I have heard that getting data downloaded from the crash data recorder won't always be done by the owner's request. I have heard that sometimes it takes a police or court order. There may be third party companies you can send the recorder off to.

There have been enough reports on social media of unintended acceleration in Lightnings for it to be on Ford's radar. Every automaker has employees whose job it is to read forum posts. There's probably some engineer at Ford who would be interested in downloading the data from your truck.

My gut reaction is that this is a case of user error, you pressed the go pedal.

 

[keith.springer]

Same thing happened to me sitting in line at a coffee shop. One pedal was turned off, cruise was off, truck had BC 1.0 at the time. I accidentally hit the cruise control button activating it and when I released the brake, the truck lurched forward. Didn't hit anything but it scared the bajeezus outta me.

 

[MaintGrl]

I'm so sorry that happened to you. As mentioned above, I do NOT like one pedal driving, I want my foot on the brake, when I want to brake. These trucks have their issues, and are pretty complex. Trying to figure out what was touched, pressed or operated when you are concentrating on something else makes it hard, and makes you second guess yourself.

 

[RLXXI]

I also posted this to the Reddit group, but will cross post here as I can use any and all information that others can share. I was stopped in traffic on a 4 lane road. I'm using one pedal mode, so my foot is not on the break. All of a sudden, the truck takes off, rapidly. I slam on the brakes, but not in time to keep from rear ending the tacoma in front of me. My husband says he has had the truck take off like this when he accidentally hits the resume button on the steering wheel with his arm. I don't recall this ever happening to me. Anyone ever experience anything like this? Will they be able to download any data from the truck that will explain what happened? Shouldn't the truck have recognized there was an obstacle and either not moved or stopped on its own? Again, appreciate any information or advice that would be helpful. BTW, it just updated to bluecruise 1.4 2 days ago.

Make sure you have it set to hold automatically in settings.

 

[MountainAlive]

I had this happen twice within the first month I had my 24 Lariat. But my sudden acceleration was caused by my floor mat. It slides around a lot and will sometimes end up on top of the accelerator. So, I got rid of it.

Floor mat should have a click snap in connector for this reason. Although sometimes these break off when removing them to clean. But these sudden acceleration stories do have me a tad concerned. I’ve seen at least 4 or 5 separate incidents being reported at this point. Tiny number but still concerning.

 

[Pacific.NW]

I think regardless of the cause, we're all aware that what Carla posted legitimately happened and it's an emotional situation for which none of us should be assigning blame (not to suggest anyone has).

I'm surprised the forward collision system didn't recognize that there was an object (vehicle) in the driving path and apply the brakes. Was that possibly disabled? Or maybe because both that vehicle and your Lightning were stopped (and in close proximity), it was somehow not working as intended?

I'm a OPD user myself and have never had any instances where my Lightning has accelerated unexpectedly other than if I had the cruise control enabled where it was reading the speed signs and jumping to a higher speed because of a zone change or phantom read (yeah, that 70km/h zone didn't just become 120, but thanks!), so I'm curious to find out what the cause was here (if you ever find out).

 

[LazyLightningATX]

My two cents. Maybe driver had foot 'resting' on accelerator with just enough weight that the truck thinks you are pressing it, and hit that cruise button...i believe that would be a recipe for what happened. why accident avoidance or auto braking didnt stop it, i dunno.

I have never had anything like this happen, but i do rest my foot on pedal at lights and a few times have realized i was VERY SLOWLY creeping forward...was so subtle i could hardly feel it.

 

[WellingtonWorks]

I have had this happen to me while having Blue Cruise on and in stop and go traffic. There was an instance where the truck accelerated with a large 18-wheeler in front of me. It was like the system suddenly didn't see the truck in front of me and decided to accelerate. Thankfully I had enough distance to brake in time.

I have learned to not trust this truck's Adaptive Cruise Crontrol in stop-and-go traffic. My previous vehicle was a BMW with the Traffic Assist and it did much much better in traffic situation.

 

[TheBigBezo]

I have had two instances months apart where after backing out of a spot and putting it back into drive, the truck accelerated hard requiring braking. I’ve written about it before, but it felt like runaway throttle, not driver input. I wish I had a video or onboard data to look at.

A lot of things could have caused OPs accident, but the periodic reports of unintentional acceleration (especially with so much torque) are of interest.

 

[swngdncr]

I think regardless of the cause, we're all aware that what Carla posted legitimately happened and it's an emotional situation for which none of us should be assigning blame (not to suggest anyone has).

I'm surprised the forward collision system didn't recognize that there was an object (vehicle) in the driving path and apply the brakes. Was that possibly disabled? Or maybe because both that vehicle and your Lightning were stopped (and in close proximity), it was somehow not working as intended?

I'm a OPD user myself and have never had any instances where my Lightning has accelerated unexpectedly other than if I had the cruise control enabled where it was reading the speed signs and jumping to a higher speed because of a zone change or phantom read (yeah, that 70km/h zone didn't just become 120, but thanks!), so I'm curious to find out what the cause was here (if you ever find out).

Thank-you! I'm wondering if it didn't recognize the car in front because it was so close. Maybe cruise control is designed sense things farther ahead? I don't know.

 

[swngdncr]

My two cents. Maybe driver had foot 'resting' on accelerator with just enough weight that the truck thinks you are pressing it, and hit that cruise button...i believe that would be a recipe for what happened. why accident avoidance or auto braking didnt stop it, i dunno.

I have never had anything like this happen, but i do rest my foot on pedal at lights and a few times have realized i was VERY SLOWLY creeping forward...was so subtle i could hardly feel it.

I can't rule this out at this point. There was another thread of someone whose truck accelerated and smashed into their garage. They commented that they "dowloaded the data" from the truck and it showed that they had hit the resume button. I wonder how the downloaded the data. Sent them a PM asking. But if anyone one knows how I can download the data, would appreciate information. I just don't trust the dealer--Ford, not to mess with it if it shows vehicle fault rather than driver error.

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