- A Ford F-450 driver posted a video of himself lying across the rear seat of his truck, leaving no one in the driver’s seat.
- No driver assistance system available to the public is good enough to accomplish the feat safely.
- Making matters worse, the F-450 is not even sold with Ford’s best driver assistance system, BlueCruise, meaning that this driver is relying entirely on adaptive cruiser control and lane keep assist.
It has become dishearteningly common to see Tesla drivers abuse their vehicles’ driver assistance systems, but so far other brands’ drivers have been better behaved. However, a new video from a Ford driver suggests that the problem of overreliance on automated driving systems could become an industry-wide phenomenon.
In a video posted to Instagram by user @__c.crawford__, a man can be seen lying across the rear bench seat of a truck identified as a Ford F-450. As the camera pans to the front of the vehicle, a vacant driver’s seat can be seen, and the caption “F450 driving itself” is shown on the screen.
Read: NHTSA Probes Ford’s BlueCruise ADAS After Fatal Nighttime Collisions
Based on the speedometer, the truck is traveling at more than 80 mph (129 km/h) in this video, which was first noticed by The Drive. A pair of bags are set on the left spoke of the steering wheel, likely to trick the lane-centering system into believing that a driver’s hand is on the wheel. The cameraman, filming from the passenger’s seat, says, “This is probably the most nerve-racking shit I’ve ever done.”
And so it should be, because it’s a colossally dangerous thing to do, putting the lives of both of the Ford’s occupants at risk, as well as those of other people on the highway. There is no car on the highway that can pull off this stunt legally or safely, least of all the F-450.
Although Ford does offer a Level 2 driver assistance system called BlueCruise — which, for the record, requires an attentive driver to be at the wheel at all times — the service is not offered on the F-450.
Instead, this “stunt” is likely being pulled off via the use of adaptive cruise control and lane centering assistance technology. Although these systems keep a vehicle in its lane, they are not designed to take over the task of driving completely.
Ironically, they are such low-tech driver assistance technologies that they are also probably why the truck is so easily fooled. Vehicles equipped with BlueCruise are designed to slow down and stop if the system believes the driver isn’t paying enough attention to the road.
