Lane assist surprised me today

[LaBalbe]

I shut that off the first time it tried to fight me on a maneuver. Like others have said, I don't need my truck fighting me when I'm trying to do the safe thing.

I really wish that instead of adding more tech to vehicles to compensate for the "least competent driver", they'd get back to low-tech vehicles that actually required full driver awareness & competence. I remember seeing an op-ed piece a few years ago, where they argued that the solution to distracted driving was to get rid of all of the tech in the car, up to and including automatic transmission, because when you're driving a manual transmission, all of your limbs are involved in the operation of the vehicle so you wouldn't HAVE a free hand to play with your phone; this would be especially true in stop-and-go driving, where a bunch of folks seem to think that it's ok to text because they're not going that fast.

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[bloosh]

I actually really like our lane keeping assist because it's quiet and fairly unobtrusive compared to some others I have seen (I try and avoid my vehicles beeping at me if I can help it). I just hit 80,000 miles and I have never had the lane keeping assist do anything remotely close to what could be considered dangerous or unnerving. Sure it puts up some resistance if you don't use your blinkers, but calling it dangerous seems exaggerated. If you give it any actual intentional force the resistance is minimal. It's designed to stop a slow drift when it thinks your not paying attention or asleep, and if that is happening its not the lane keeping assist that is being dangerous.

I am glad they allow it to be turned off though. I wish we could have more customization of features in general.

 

[RDJTX]

Didn't you see the option on the "Hunters Special Hood" option when you got your Ranger........

That would be more appropriate on a mustang

 

[Gazmic]

There is also a button on the end of the turn signal lever that turns lane keeping off (or back on) so that you don't have to signal if you don't want to.

 

[pbethel]

It was a big surprise to me. I rarely ever cross the line and usually there is just a light nudge. I would think it would recognize a bicycle and not fight back to try and get it.

I think you are expecting way to much from this system.
The much more sophisticated self driving systems are running over pedestrians and rear ending stopped semis.

 

[Jerry Eiler]

I think of lane keeping as nothing more than an extension to power steering. I turned it on so I expect it to apply force to the wheel. But I do not expect it to "drive" for me. It's not supposed to be autopilot. So I do like having it as a tool to use when appropriate. My previous Ranger was a 5 speed, I could drive that without paying attention if that was my bent. The tools don't make a better or worse driver, attitude towards driving does.

 

[svogt302]

Lane assist on my '19 Ranger is pretty bad but my wife's '21 Escape it is great.
It works really good on the highway using cruise control on the Escape but the Ranger not so much

 

[LaBalbe]

The tools don't make a better or worse driver, attitude towards driving does.

While I agree with that statement in principle, the tools exacerbate a poor attitude towards driving because it can give a false sense of safety/competence; the whole "I don't need to pay attention, because the tech will do that for me" attitude.

 

[Cmar]

I think you are expecting way to much from this system.
The much more sophisticated self driving systems are running over pedestrians and rear ending stopped semis.

Yet you would be surprised. A couple of weeks ago I was doing a test drive in an electric car with my wife. She has quite a long commute to work and we worked out it would be actually cheaper than diesel for her. So we pulled up at a red light turning right off a four lane road and on the center island to the right of us (remember we drive on the left) was one of those metal safety cages they seem intent on sticking on center islands with pedestrian crossings here lately. (I hate them, they block your view, and anyway Darwin's theory should just be allowed to take its course) Anyway the car camera recognized it and flashed up an audible warning and a pic of the cage, on the touch screen inside with a "pedestrian safety" warning. I was somewhat impressed.

 

[Rebel13]

After reading all of this I'm not sure if I should be happy or irritated that mine doesn't work at all. Did the 2 inch level on my 22 tremor and hasn't worked since. Was told it would relearn after a few driving cycles but been about 3 weeks now and still hasn't learned. Or maybe my truck isn't as smart as others lol

 

[Floyd]

My good news is that my STX doesn't have the lane keeper feature, instead it saved me enough money to fuel the first 100,000 miles and I haven't "wandered" out of my lane yet.

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