Car almost crashed its self...

[Kabish]

Today, on the same freeway I drive every single day, 94 West a little past the 805 making my way to the airport to pickup the wife/kids. I had the intelligent cruise control turned on and the CoPilot turned on like I always do. It was about 17:10, heading west into the setting sun. All the sudden the car pulls hard to the right, I look down at the dash and the right side lane assist line is orange. So it SHOULD be pulling me left, but no, it pulled pretty aggressive to the right repeatedly and into an occupied lane of a large white truck. I drive holding the wheel at the bottom or on one side so I can correct the CoPilot if I need too quickly, or to just verify I have my hands on the wheel. This adjustment would not stop until I took hold of the wheel with both hands and did an aggressive amount of counter steer to the left, at which time the CoPilot dinged and it said canceled.

Rest of the drive to the airport the car would not engage CoPilot, mind you I received no types of errors. I had green lines on both sides of the dash with the blue half circle at the top showing it was seeing the lanes and in cruise control. However it would go from two green bars, to just one, to none, to both. I picked up the wife at the airport (did not turn off the car) and the entire way home it would not enable the CoPilot even though the way home it detected both lane markers the entire way.

So, I'm assuming the sun "blinded" the car?? I guess its good and all that the car was like "Whelp I can't see shit, so imma just going to shut off CoPilot with no errors and just not let the driver turn it back on". I would had been fine with that if it hadn't tried to kill me moments earlier by driving me into the side of a truck. Car is clean, just washed it in the morning.

So props I guess to Ford for shutting down the system. However the car should not had tried to pull me out of the lane like that, it should had just turned off the system the second it saw it was having issues viewing the street. IMO it should not be trying to take corrective actions when it can't see correctly, just turn off and let the driver make the corrections if any are even needed.

It really reminded me of the guy who posted about how his car pulled him into a barrier... If I did not have my hands on the wheel I 100% believe I would had went into the side of that truck. Leads me to REALLY question if I want to trust BlueCruise... So wish I had my dashcam installed.

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[macchiaz-o]

I'm glad you're okay.

I read everything you stated, but I think it's also fair to evaluate the situation this way:

The lane keeping system is a driver's aid, not a driver. You're the driver.

Your hands are supposed to be in control of the wheel. Your vehicle doesn't have BlueCruise, and wasn't in hands-free mode.

Lane keeping assist in its current form will never apply strong torque to steering, just gentle corrections. Your hands are on the wheel and ready to accept or override such corrections.

The vehicle may have misinterpreted sun reflections and shadows as valid lane markings. It can happen in a way that the car accepts as "correct" with high probability, rather than detecting as false or too uncertain. BlueCruise uses high definition mapping data to reinforce its decision model, but since you don't have BlueCruise nor its associated HD map data, the LKA system has to provide its driving aid without those facts.

Anyway, maybe this is helpful to get a better handle on the limits of driver assistance systems... Maybe not. Either way, I'm glad you're okay and that you were able to regain control quickly enough.

 

[Kabish]

The lane keeping system is a driver's aid, not a driver. You're the driver.

Your hands are supposed to be in control of the wheel. Your vehicle doesn't have BlueCruise, and wasn't in hands-free mode.

100% and why I always keep my hands on the wheel.

Guess the point of my post was to just make sure people are always ready to take control at a drop of a hat. I've driven this stretch of highway 1000's of times without issue. Don't let yourselves get into that state of mind where you are confident the car will react XYZ way.

Lane keeping assist in its current form will never apply strong torque to steering, just gentle corrections.

It was absolutely more aggressive than it normally is. Or maybe it was just its repeated attempts over and over that made it feel more aggressive than what it was. I'm wondering if it was the lane assist AND CoPilot making that adjustment? So I had both systems fighting me?? I have no idea... All I know is that I've experienced that assist in the past and it was no where close to the way it felt tonight.

 

[macchiaz-o]

I've driven this stretch of highway 1000's of times without issue. Don't let yourselves get into that state of mind where you are confident the car will react XYZ way.

This is sage advice right here. Yes, always a good reminder for us.

 

[SteveUk]

this "Lane keeping assist in its current form will never apply strong torque to steering, just gentle corrections." Just sounds very rude and patronising.

I know someone who has told me about a similar experience recently where her car pulled aggressively in the same fashion.

The person who created this thread described in detail their experience, which sounded pretty horrific. Your comment was dismissive.

Something isn't right as I've heard of this before as stated above. The person I know had to very strongly counter the lane keep assist to save herself from going into another car.

 

[louibluey]

... It was about 17:10, heading west into the setting sun. All the sudden the car pulls hard to the right, I look down at the dash and the right side lane assist line is orange. So it SHOULD be pulling me left, but no, it pulled pretty aggressive to the right repeatedly and into an occupied lane of a large white truck.

... So, I'm assuming the sun "blinded" the car?? I guess its good and all that the car was like "Whelp I can't see shit, so imma just going to shut off CoPilot with no errors and just not let the driver turn it back on". I would had been fine with that if it hadn't tried to kill me moments earlier by driving me into the side of a truck. Car is clean, just washed it in the morning.

... So wish I had my dashcam installed.

I installed my first dash cam in my 2016 Chevy Volt to try to understand why the emergency braking system was alerting at times. One repeatable alert was traveling under an overpass with the sun at a low angle behind. It took both front and rear cameras to easily see the issue.

I've been delaying installing my last dashcam into MME, this thread encourages me to do it sooner than later.

Tell us what your dealer says. Seems like either there is some kind of module / camera/sensor, or actuator failure, or the software recognized the large correction and locked itself out based on that alone.

 

[Visigoth_X]

Today, on the same freeway I drive every single day, 94 West a little past the 805 making my way to the airport to pickup the wife/kids. I had the intelligent cruise control turned on and the CoPilot turned on like I always do. It was about 17:10, heading west into the setting sun. All the sudden the car pulls hard to the right, I look down at the dash and the right side lane assist line is orange. So it SHOULD be pulling me left, but no, it pulled pretty aggressive to the right repeatedly and into an occupied lane of a large white truck. I drive holding the wheel at the bottom or on one side so I can correct the CoPilot if I need too quickly, or to just verify I have my hands on the wheel. This adjustment would not stop until I took hold of the wheel with both hands and did an aggressive amount of counter steer to the left, at which time the CoPilot dinged and it said canceled.

Rest of the drive to the airport the car would not engage CoPilot, mind you I received no types of errors. I had green lines on both sides of the dash with the blue half circle at the top showing it was seeing the lanes and in cruise control. However it would go from two green bars, to just one, to none, to both. I picked up the wife at the airport (did not turn off the car) and the entire way home it would not enable the CoPilot even though the way home it detected both lane markers the entire way.

So, I'm assuming the sun "blinded" the car?? I guess its good and all that the car was like "Whelp I can't see shit, so imma just going to shut off CoPilot with no errors and just not let the driver turn it back on". I would had been fine with that if it hadn't tried to kill me moments earlier by driving me into the side of a truck. Car is clean, just washed it in the morning.

So props I guess to Ford for shutting down the system. However the car should not had tried to pull me out of the lane like that, it should had just turned off the system the second it saw it was having issues viewing the street. IMO it should not be trying to take corrective actions when it can't see correctly, just turn off and let the driver make the corrections if any are even needed.

It really reminded me of the guy who posted about how his car pulled him into a barrier... If I did not have my hands on the wheel I 100% believe I would had went into the side of that truck. Leads me to REALLY question if I want to trust BlueCruise... So wish I had my dashcam installed.

I haven't had that experience with the Mach E but I did have it with my RAV4. One morning, with the lane keeping assist (LKA) system off, it kept pulling to the right like it was severely out of alignment. I hadn't had any problems before stopping at work so I figured it was electronic. I tried turning the LKA on to see what would happen - it pulled me sharply left towards oncoming traffic.

It wasn't hard to fight it but it was a significant pull. However, this did correct the right sided drift with LKA off. During the rest of the trip, any time I would activate it again, it would go back to pulling me towards oncoming traffic, so I just kept it off.

Got home, turned off the car, and tested it again on my next trip; no problems at all.

I don't know if these are software glitches or environmental anomalies (sun position, moisture, etc.), but I figured I would share since it seems a problem for other vehicles too.

 

[Carsinmyblood]

....another reason I will never allow my car to drive itself.

 

[Shayne]

this "Lane keeping assist in its current form will never apply strong torque to steering, just gentle corrections." Just sounds very rude and patronising.

I know someone who has told me about a similar experience recently where her car pulled aggressively in the same fashion.

The person who created this thread described in detail their experience, which sounded pretty horrific. Your comment was dismissive.

Something isn't right as I've heard of this before as stated above. The person I know had to very strongly counter the lane keep assist to save herself from going into another car.

Good to be aware of. It is a computer program by humans. If you have been around this computer for a bit you know what I mean. I do not use drive yourself mode unless it is something quick I need to do where I before used my knees. Seems to work better than knees .

 

[Kabish]

....another reason I will never allow my car to drive itself.

You just need to learn how the car works. In this case though this car has ran this stretch of freeway 100's of times with no issue. I've never ran this stretch of freeway though heading west into a low setting sun, nor will I do it again lol

I find the assisted driving very pleasant in most cases. I 100% do not trust it coming up to stopped traffic at 75mph freeway speeds. I shut that system off in a heart beat, get to the speed of the stopped/slowed traffic then I turn it back on. For me, I feel way less "exhausted" by the time I finally get to work. That is even with me keeping my hands on the wheel and hovering my foot over the accelerator/brake. Even before the MME, I pretty much always keep my feet hovered over the peddles. Only time I'll put my foot down flat is when its an open freeway with very little to no traffic.

All that said, one detail that is kind of important, the RIGHT side lane indicator on the dash was orange, not the left. With the RIGHT side being orange the car should had been correcting to the LEFT not to the right and into the side of the white F150. The right side was 100% orange cause I was trying to figure out what the hell the car was trying to do and looked at the dash.

I'd also like to just throw this out as well. My car is attempting to install 1.7, I know for a fact it had to of at least started Monday. This fault happened on Saturday, was it the sun, or was it 1.7 updating things???? There have been multiple people saying 1.7 causes their car to do odd things while it tries to update. If this is the case, Ford needs to get on the ball. Having a system like the driver assist, if it was caused by 1.7 installing in some way, freaking out is not good.

 

[Carsinmyblood]

You just need to learn how the car works.

In other words.... You just have to know how unreliable it is and be ready to compensate.

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