My Unexpected Acceleration Story (FORD PLEASE READ)

[SonicBlue]

Anybody who knows my posting history knows that I’ve been skeptical about the “unexpected acceleration” crash claims. I was firmly in the camp of “you accidentally activated cruise control when twisting the steering wheel but the car didn’t accelerate - it just turned off one-pedal driving which made it feel like the car sped up.”

Here is what the manual says about cruise control:

Press the button to activate the system. When the system activates, the set speed is equal to whichever is greater, the current vehicle speed, or 15 mph when in imperial units or 20 km/h when in metric units.

So far this is true. But the manual next says…

If the speed is too low, or other conditions are not correct for adaptive cruise control activation, the system enters standby mode. When you are below 15 mph when in imperial units or 20 km/h when in metric units, adaptive cruise control does not activate unless you are following another vehicle.

I can now definitively say that this is bullshit. The adaptive cruise obviously detected the wall in front of me and thought I was following another car and accelerated to 15mph.

I know EXACTLY what happened to me this morning. And it shouldn’t be possible. But it is. And that is a big problem for Ford.

Here is what happened this morning: I was in my office parking garage. I was performing a sharp one-handed turn into a parking space. An UPHILL parking space. When making the turn with my left hand, I accidentally depressed the “cruise control on/off” button near the outer left-side of the steering wheel, which turned on cruise control. I also saw the display on my IPC change to denote the cruise control being engaged.

Now, I already knew this happens to people. It’s happened to me a few times before, too. But it did not simply disengage my one pedal driving. Instead, there was a sudden burst of acceleration UPHILL. Without my foot on the gas pedal. Fortunately I quickly slammed on the brake. If I had been one split-second slower I would have smashed the wall in front of me.

What the hell is going on @Ford Motor Company? This should not be possible. It’s bad enough that people can accidentally engage cruise due to the location of that button. But this is a downright dangerous situation in parking lots if it actually causes the car to accelerate!!!

Sponsored

 

[MellowJohnny]

Report it to the NHTSA.

Maybe raised "guards" beside the button would prevent accidental engagement. Aircraft cockpits do this when a human action needs to be deliberate, not accidental - like cutting fuel flow for example.

 

[Gloff]

Yeah I never understood why the cruise standby button would ever activate cruise. Nearly every car I've owned with cruise control, you have to turn standby on first, then activate with the set/resume button. BMWs are the exception to that rule.

 

[hack-e]

I am pretty sure I've experienced this type of behavior too. Just a handful of times when I've engaged cruise as I was slowing down behind a stopped vehicle at a traffic light, the car would accelerate stronger than normal. I've always been able to stop it by quickly pressing the brake pedal. I always wondered if these incidences are what people are talking about on here. I think they are, but it's rare to reproduce, which makes it difficult to fix.

 

[DeusEx]

Maybe Ford can toggle a message that you need to press OK on the steering wheel to start cruise control and if enough time lapses without input, cruise control doesn't turn on?

I'm thinking,
1. Press "Cruise Control."
2. Get prompt on IPC that says, "Press OK to Confirm Cruise Control Activation. "
3. "Ok" enables Cruise Control.
4. 10 second delay without pressing ok or pressing cruise control again to deactivate.

 

[Burley1]

Anybody who knows my posting history knows that I’ve been skeptical about the “unexpected acceleration” crash claims. I was firmly in the camp of “you accidentally activated cruise control when twisting the steering wheel but the car didn’t accelerate - it just turned off one-pedal driving which made it feel like the car sped up.”

Here is what the manual says about cruise control:



So far this is true. But the manual next says…



I can now definitively say that this is bullshit. The adaptive cruise obviously detected the wall in front of me and thought I was following another car and accelerated to 15mph.

I know EXACTLY what happened to me this morning. And it shouldn’t be possible. But it is. And that is a big problem for Ford.

Here is what happened this morning: I was in my office parking garage. I was performing a sharp one-handed turn into a parking space. An UPHILL parking space. When making the turn with my left hand, I accidentally depressed the “cruise control on/off” button near the outer left-side of the steering wheel, which turned on cruise control. I also saw the display on my IPC change to denote the cruise control being engaged.

Now, I already knew this happens to people. It’s happened to me a few times before, too. But it did not simply disengage my one pedal driving. Instead, there was a sudden burst of acceleration UPHILL. Without my foot on the gas pedal. Fortunately I quickly slammed on the brake. If I had been one split-second slower I would have smashed the wall in front of me.

What the hell is going on @Ford Motor Company? This should not be possible. It’s bad enough that people can accidentally engage cruise due to the location of that button. But this is a downright dangerous situation in parking lots if it actually causes the car to accelerate!!!

I heard they fixed it on 2022 and later. Why do you say what the hell is going on ford? I mean really? My wife parks in a parking garage every day and I'm quite sure tens of thousands do everyday. These hyperbolic posts are why I left the wagoneer s forum already.

 

[Mach1E]

Anybody who knows my posting history knows that I’ve been skeptical about the “unexpected acceleration” crash claims. I was firmly in the camp of “you accidentally activated cruise control when twisting the steering wheel but the car didn’t accelerate - it just turned off one-pedal driving which made it feel like the car sped up.”

Here is what the manual says about cruise control:



So far this is true. But the manual next says…



I can now definitively say that this is bullshit. The adaptive cruise obviously detected the wall in front of me and thought I was following another car and accelerated to 15mph.

I know EXACTLY what happened to me this morning. And it shouldn’t be possible. But it is. And that is a big problem for Ford.

Here is what happened this morning: I was in my office parking garage. I was performing a sharp one-handed turn into a parking space. An UPHILL parking space. When making the turn with my left hand, I accidentally depressed the “cruise control on/off” button near the outer left-side of the steering wheel, which turned on cruise control. I also saw the display on my IPC change to denote the cruise control being engaged.

Now, I already knew this happens to people. It’s happened to me a few times before, too. But it did not simply disengage my one pedal driving. Instead, there was a sudden burst of acceleration UPHILL. Without my foot on the gas pedal. Fortunately I quickly slammed on the brake. If I had been one split-second slower I would have smashed the wall in front of me.

What the hell is going on @Ford Motor Company? This should not be possible. It’s bad enough that people can accidentally engage cruise due to the location of that button. But this is a downright dangerous situation in parking lots if it actually causes the car to accelerate!!!

Your story is exactly what multiple people have posted here has happened (except many swear that they didn’t hit the button).

The fix from Ford should be easy-
Only allow to resume if the steering wheel is straight. Almost all of the accidental button pushing seems to happen in parking lots where people are turning the wheel.

The “resume” is a great feature for stop and go traffic, but scary if you accidentally hit the button like what happened to you.

 

[SonicBlue]

I heard they fixed it on 2022 and later. Why do you say what the hell is going on ford? I mean really? My wife parks in a parking garage every day and I'm quite sure tens of thousands do everyday. These hyperbolic posts are why I left the wagoneer s forum already.

Because this type of occurrence has been reported a lot. For a long time. Not just here, but other places like Reddit, etc. And Ford hasn’t fixed it. Despite it being a significant safety concern even if a rare issue. And I stood up for Ford because I didn’t believe these people - I thought it was all user error. But it isn’t. Obviously a mistaken push of the button is user error, but it’s easy to do when parking. The quick acceleration to 15mph should not be happening. Even the manual says it shouldn’t happen. But it does. And I’ve seen no confirmation that Ford has even acknowledged this issue, let alone fixed it for 22s forward.

 

[Burley1]

I guess I just don't understand why we all seem to forget when we're all taught very young and treat these manufacturers like shit. I don't think it will get your car fixed any faster.

Anyway, good luck

 

[gregsfortytwo]

I’m pretty sure this happened to me in a congested parking lot once. Certainly I somehow activated cruise control and it leapt forward while I was slowing down with one-pedal drive. I don’t really understand why it turned on and sped up, since it usually just refuses to turn on below 15mph. Is the manual really saying if you turn on cruise control and it doesn’t already have a car in front locked in, it by design goes to 15mph with adaptive off? That’s sort of what you quoted, which I guess matches behavior but is a crazy behavior to design in!
That’s with a 2023 Premium.

 

[SonicBlue]

I’m pretty sure this happened to me in a congested parking lot once. Certainly I somehow activated cruise control and it leapt forward while I was slowing down with one-pedal drive. I don’t really understand why it turned on and sped up, since it usually just refuses to turn on below 15mph. Is the manual really saying if you turn on cruise control and it doesn’t already have a car in front locked in, it by design goes to 15mph with adaptive off? That’s sort of what you quoted, which I guess matches behavior but is a crazy behavior to design in!
That’s with a 2023 Premium.

I’m quoting direct from the manual. The language is exactly the same in both the 2021 and 2024 manuals I checked. And yes, it’s insane design.

 

[SonicBlue]

Your story is exactly what multiple people have posted here has happened (except many swear that they didn’t hit the button).

The fix from Ford should be easy-
Only allow to resume if the steering wheel is straight. Almost all of the accidental button pushing seems to happen in parking lots where people are turning the wheel.

The “resume” is a great feature for stop and go traffic, but scary if you accidentally hit the button like what happened to you.

Yes, that sounds like a pretty easy fix?

And yes, I fully acknowledged I hit the button by mistake. I am betting everyone else is, too. But the car should not accelerate to 15mph when this happens just because a sensor gets confused. That’s nuts. It’s dangerous. And the manual says it should not happen.

 

[TNGreenMachE]

Don't slam me but this is my experience.

On my 2024, the only way I can get the car to accelerate by hitting a button on the steering wheel is to have a previously entered speed and hitting the resume button while cruise is on but only paused. If I hit the cruise button when paused, cruise is disabled.

I did a road test this afternoon. I was on a country road with no traffic and no other car or any walls in front of me.

1) Activate the cruise control which sets the speed AT THE CURRENT speed when traveling somewhere north of 30 mph and maintains that speed. I did not pass any speed limit signs but I have the predictive speed offset set to 0.

2) Step on the brake OR hit the pause/resume button to slow down. Once I drop below 10 mph or so, tapping the resume button brings up a message, "Adaptive Cruise Control Speed too low to activate".

3) Once I pass 10 mph, I can hit resume and the car will accelerate back to the set speed.

Simply activating the cruise control should only set a current speed at best. Hitting it twice just turns it off.

So the only way I can get my car to accelerate is to have cruise on, a previiously set speed, and hit resume whilst driving at 10 mph or above. If I am below 10 mph, no button I hit will cause the car to accelerate.

Maybe there is a problem with some cars, but it is not fleet wide.

I have always turned cruise off when I was not actively using it.

 

[Mach1E]

Don't slam me but this is my experience.

On my 2024, the only way I can get the car to accelerate by hitting a button on the steering wheel is to have a previously entered speed and hitting the resume button while cruise is on but only paused. If I hit the cruise button when paused, cruise is disabled.

I did a road test this afternoon. I was on a country road with no traffic and no other car or any walls in front of me.

1) Activate the cruise control which sets the speed AT THE CURRENT speed when traveling somewhere north of 30 mph and maintains that speed. I did not pass any speed limit signs but I have the predictive speed offset set to 0.

2) Step on the brake OR hit the pause/resume button to slow down. Once I drop below 10 mph or so, tapping the resume button brings up a message, "Adaptive Cruise Control Speed too low to activate".

3) Once I pass 10 mph, I can hit resume and the car will accelerate back to the set speed.

Simply activating the cruise control should only set a current speed at best. Hitting it twice just turns it off.

So the only way I can get my car to accelerate is to have cruise on, a previiously set speed, and hit resume whilst driving at 10 mph or above. If I am below 10 mph, no button I hit will cause the car to accelerate.

Maybe there is a problem with some cars, but it is not fleet wide.

I have always turned cruise off when I was not actively using it.

Note what he posted from the manual above:
“When you are below 15 mph when in imperial units or 20 km/h when in metric units, adaptive cruise control does not activate unless you are following another vehicle.”

You have to have a car in front of you for it to work (or a wall apparently that the car thinks is a car).

 

[SonicBlue]

Don't slam me but this is my experience.

On my 2024, the only way I can get the car to accelerate by hitting a button on the steering wheel is to have a previously entered speed and hitting the resume button while cruise is on but only paused. If I hit the cruise button when paused, cruise is disabled.

I did a road test this afternoon. I was on a country road with no traffic and no other car or any walls in front of me.

1) Activate the cruise control which sets the speed AT THE CURRENT speed when traveling somewhere north of 30 mph and maintains that speed. I did not pass any speed limit signs but I have the predictive speed offset set to 0.

2) Step on the brake OR hit the pause/resume button to slow down. Once I drop below 10 mph or so, tapping the resume button brings up a message, "Adaptive Cruise Control Speed too low to activate".

3) Once I pass 10 mph, I can hit resume and the car will accelerate back to the set speed.

Simply activating the cruise control should only set a current speed at best. Hitting it twice just turns it off.

So the only way I can get my car to accelerate is to have cruise on, a previiously set speed, and hit resume whilst driving at 10 mph or above. If I am below 10 mph, no button I hit will cause the car to accelerate.

Maybe there is a problem with some cars, but it is not fleet wide.

I have always turned cruise off when I was not actively using it.

I would not recommend you actually doing this, but the only way to truly test this under like conditions is to recreate like conditions. Hit the cruise control button while turning into a tight parking spot at low speed. But be ready to slam on the brake if your sensor gets confused. Don’t actually do this, btw. You may come to strongly regret it.

I’m telling you it’s happening. The manual says it shouldn’t be possible but it is. And there’s no ready explanation for why this problem wouldn’t be consistent across all MMEs.

Sponsored