Going_Going_Gone
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Well, after a couple of days at the dealership service department, and after they spent some time with the hotline people, the service manager was told the following:
A. Other Ford vehicles communicate potential collisions to the drivers using a camera signal and their Active Collision Avoidance Systems use that signal to determine when to alert the driver and/or brake. The Expedition only uses signals from the lane-keeping and adaptive cruise sensors.
B. There is NO TEST that can determine if the system is functioning other than to rapidly close on another vehicle and risk a collision or have someone jump out in front of you while you're driving. The hotline strongly advised against both.
D. Their logic was that, if the lane-keeping and adaptive cruise sensors are working (as in the adaptive cruise slowing when closing on another vehicle), then the ACA is "assumed" to be working properly. Both I and the service manager have had the same experience with the ACA by "simulating" close calls with no alert or braking actions. Interestingly another Expedition in inventory behaved the exact same way. So when I asked "what's next?" I was told I could call the 800 number, report my concerns to Ford, and insist that they open a case file, which I did. I have since been told that my situation has been handed off to a more Specialized Team. My hope would be that they can come up with a way to input data into the vehicle that would create signals to mimic a potential collision and see if that generates a response. It is baffling that they would equip some of their most expensive and greatest (passenger) capacity vehicles with a system that does not function as predictably as in their other, smaller vehicles, and cannot be tested for proper operation. A vehicle intended to be used to transport a family assuming all of the inherent "distractions" that entails ought to have the MOST RELIABLE alert system they can develop--certainly equal to or better than the ACA systems in smaller passenger cars and pickups.
A. Other Ford vehicles communicate potential collisions to the drivers using a camera signal and their Active Collision Avoidance Systems use that signal to determine when to alert the driver and/or brake. The Expedition only uses signals from the lane-keeping and adaptive cruise sensors.
B. There is NO TEST that can determine if the system is functioning other than to rapidly close on another vehicle and risk a collision or have someone jump out in front of you while you're driving. The hotline strongly advised against both.
D. Their logic was that, if the lane-keeping and adaptive cruise sensors are working (as in the adaptive cruise slowing when closing on another vehicle), then the ACA is "assumed" to be working properly. Both I and the service manager have had the same experience with the ACA by "simulating" close calls with no alert or braking actions. Interestingly another Expedition in inventory behaved the exact same way. So when I asked "what's next?" I was told I could call the 800 number, report my concerns to Ford, and insist that they open a case file, which I did. I have since been told that my situation has been handed off to a more Specialized Team. My hope would be that they can come up with a way to input data into the vehicle that would create signals to mimic a potential collision and see if that generates a response. It is baffling that they would equip some of their most expensive and greatest (passenger) capacity vehicles with a system that does not function as predictably as in their other, smaller vehicles, and cannot be tested for proper operation. A vehicle intended to be used to transport a family assuming all of the inherent "distractions" that entails ought to have the MOST RELIABLE alert system they can develop--certainly equal to or better than the ACA systems in smaller passenger cars and pickups.