Truck accelerated from stop and rear ended car in front.

[keith.springer]

while I suspect we all 'think' we know exactly what elements were in effect when a sudden 'happening' takes place, I also believe that we don't always 'know' what we think we do...

it's easy to be swayed by what we believe is supposed to be happening at any given moment, although we might later realize that we didn't have ONE PEDAL on, or AUTO HOLD was not really set, or questions about possibly 'hitting' Cruise activation, accidentally... or whether our foot touched the pedal without realizing it, etc...

Cruise Control can, in no way, 'all of a sudden' deploy to speed - it's not how it works.
- if CC was not yet activated, with the center button, then accidentally pressing that button only serves to set the CURRENT speed for Cruise - if you are stopped, then nothing happens.
- if CC was ALREADY activated, and you are stopped, it does NOT suddenly go to 'speed', as the system has a built-in recognition of the current speed before it does, and speeds lower than a certain rate, a minimum speed, such as 25mph, will NOT activate the 'automatic' speed control.
- if CC was ALREADY activated, and you ARE in motion, then, YES, it 'could' get up to the former set speed, IF you are ALREADY above the minimum speed... otherwise, it does nothing.

ONE PEDAL has no affect on Cruise Control. Factually, ONE PEDAL would STOP the vehicle, as it is designed, and would NOT increase any speed, from a DEAD STOP... yes, if you have CC activated, it becomes the decision maker in the equation, but ONLY once UP TO speed - controlling not only SPEED, but also braking, if it senses a vehicle slowing ahead.

AUTO HOLD has no affect on Cruise Control, or vice versa. Releasing AUTO HOLD requires the pedal, and even then, it only serves to release the physical braking - whatever drive mode you are in at the moment, and the terrain, will be what movement the truck takes, on it's own, such as creeping, or coasting.

I don't see in any of these possible situations where the truck could 'suddenly', and 'on it's own', lurch forward, at speed, even with CC activated, while in either AUTO HOLD, ONE PEDAL, or both, WITHOUT the owner/driver pressing the GO pedal, or deactivating ONE PEDAL.

Accidents are called accidents because they are not intentional, for the most part. We sometimes just don't realize what really happened because, well, it happens so fast, and catches us off-guard. I suspect that any data that can be collected from the truck will show one of these 'human element' interventions, as unfortunate as that may be.


and, to any naysayers or those who don't 'trust' the Adaptive Cruise and similar technology, I've driven many thousands of miles, with many of those through downtown ATLANTA RUSH HOUR traffic on I85/I75 with bumper-to-bumper 2mph to 62mph stop-n-go heavy traffic, allowing ADAPTIVE CRUISE to take me the whole way, whether coming to a COMPLETE STOP behind the vehicle ahead, slowing dramatically when vehicles ahead come to a sudden stop, or 'creeping' slowly for miles, back-and-forth between stop, 2mph, to 62mph, for instance. It's a joy.

I do not use ONE PEDAL regularly, but I have on occasions, and while I don't enjoy it's requirement to keep my foot constantly on the GO pedal, it does work as intended, bringing you to even a complete stop, if you allow it. Many like to use this in stop-n-go traffic, though.

I DO use AUTO HOLD, constantly, as I like the truck to STAY at a complete stop, as needed, UNTIL I choose to put my foot on the GO pedal, even so slightly, to then 'creep' forward, or even to suddenly get up to a much faster speed. It works perfectly. This allows me to coast, when I want, and use the physical brakes, gingerly, as needed, depending on whether in NORMAL or SPORT driving mode.

I do know what features I had on and off. I typically use the same features all the time. And I recall distinctly bumping the cruise button right before the truck lurched. I did not imagine it.

Sponsored

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[mattskr]

- ONE PEDAL is NOT a part of Cruise Control, and therefore is NOT suddenly overridden or released simply because the Cruise Control activation button is pressed. ONE PEDAL's design is to APPLY the brakes, CONSTANTLY, and until the DRIVER PHYSICALLY presses the GO pedal to release the braking.

OPD never applies the brakes, in fact it's the opposite. You have to manually step on the brake to get more stopping power if needed. When you let off the accelerator in OPD mode it uses the resistance of the motors to slow down the vehicle and recharge the batteries. My brakes still look new because I've mastered the art of slowing down using only the pedal.

The only way I know of the truck being able to lurch forward without touching the accelerator is cruise control was enabled (more likely if it had recently been used) or OPD mode (or auto-hold mode) was suddenly disabled, then without any feet on the pedals the truck would move forward.

 

[mattskr]

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.

I've had this happen too, same thing it was a big grey trailer in front of me. My guess is the truck was too tall for the radar in the bumpers to see it properly and being grey on a cloudy day also made it invisible. Now I turn it off if I'm behind a truck (or motorcycle, just in case)

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

Pre-collision assist does not activate until speeds are above 3 mph. It doesn’t automatically apply the brakes unless it detects an imminent collision. The OP’s situation was likely such that there was no data indicating an imminent collision in time to stop the collision.

The vehicle can fail to recognize potential obstacles if there are any obstructions on the windshield in the area of the rear view mirror, where the camera is located. This can be dirt, cracks, etc.

It can also fail to recognize obstacles if those obstacles are too close. This is true for the radar, the camera, and the sonar.

It’s likely that whatever caused the acceleration didn’t bring the speed up beyond 3 mph at all and certainly not for very long. A 3 mph speed over 1 second moves the vehicle about 4.5 feet. In 2 seconds, it’s almost 9 feet.

 

[TaxmanHog]

As I've read this and previous incident's of unintended acceleration, I started the practice of switching cruise control / Blue Cruise [OFF] once I've exited a limited access highway, once I'm on local surface streets or country roads, I want full control of my truck.

 

[Zprime29]

As I've read this and previous incident's of unintended acceleration, I started the practice of switching cruise control / Blue Cruise [OFF] once I've exited a limited access highway, once I'm on local surface streets or country roads, I want full control of my truck.

It's worth noting that if cruise is off, pushing the big cruise control button engages it. If you have it engaged and stop it from being active (touching the brake or the cancel button), it remains on and pushing the big cruise button switches it off. When in the cancel state, only hitting the cancel/resume button or the set button (both are a lot further from the wheel) will re-engage cruise.

I haven't yet had cruise engage on my and make the truck move. I have accidentally hit the button while turning the wheel but I was reversing and I got a pop up telling my cruise was unavailable.

 

[swngdncr]

It's worth noting that if cruise is off, pushing the big cruise control button engages it. If you have it engaged and stop it from being active (touching the brake or the cancel button), it remains on and pushing the big cruise button switches it off. When in the cancel state, only hitting the cancel/resume button or the set button (both are a lot further from the wheel) will re-engage cruise.

I haven't yet had cruise engage on my and make the truck move. I have accidentally hit the button while turning the wheel but I was reversing and I got a pop up telling my cruise was unavailable.

I’m now confused about how these buttons work. The BC 1.4 update says that there is now “one button activation”. It says that now you only have to press the “adaptive cruise control button”, without having to also press the “lane Assist button”. I’ve never pressed both the adaptive CC button and the lane assist button. I’ve only pressed the adaptive CC button, which I assume is the large button on the left. I didn’t realize that that little protruding button in the middle was a resume button for a long time. I always would push the big button to start ACC, then, if I stopped it by tapping the break, like when I was coming up to stopped traffic and it wouldn’t slow fast enough for my comfort, I’d have to tap it at least twice to start it again. I assume that what I was doing was turning it off and back on instead of telling it to resume?

Sponsored