Ford Fusion Hybrid Lane Keeping System

sloflyer10

I bought a 2014 Ford Fusion Hybrid with the Driver Assist Package.

We like most of the technology features we purchased. The one thing we are questioning is the functionality of the “Lane Keeping System”. The “Aid” feature is what seems to be lacking most. It does little, if anything, to help keep you in the the lane other than to alert you when you depart from it.

We do have the intensity of this feature set to high. If you have the system activated and the green lane line indicator is showing it functioning, you can allow the car to drift towards the line and while you may feel a little torque on the steering wheel in the direction of the center of the lane, it is certainly not enough to keep the vehicle from drifting completely out of the lane and the vehicle readily does so without driver correction.

The owner’s manual troubleshooting section for this feature states, “Why does the vehicle not come back into the middle of the lane always, as expected, in the Aid or Aid+Alert mode?” and then lists 5 items where the Lane Keeping System might not function properly. None of those conditions are present during our testing. We are running these tests on fairly straight, flat roads with good lane markings.

After some more research into the history of the Lane Keeping System at Ford, it looks like it has devolved in its capabilities since its introduction. It’s interesting to see how the present description of the system capabilities in Ford's marketing material has been subtly changed since its 2012 introduction to reflect this. The wording of the present description “..lane-keeping aid will actually apply pressure on the steering wheel to alert the driver to bring the car back into proper lane position” has been altered from the previous similar descriptions with “torque” being replaced by “pressure” and “and then nudge” has been replaced with “to alert the driver to bring”. So the present system really doesn't "Aid" at all anymore and now just "Alerts" the driver.

I cannot find a single article on this subject as to why Ford has crippled the Aid capability of the system since its 2012 model year introduction on Explorer. Has anybody else out there seen anything on this subject?

stever

It's interesting that there are so few other posts in the forums that really talk about lane departure warning systems, other than listing it in a features list. A couple of people like theirs but they even turn them off now and then (and there systems don't sound particularly intrusive; more like some sort of warning like a chime).

My guess is that Ford had some complaints about it being too intrusive or perhaps thought it may raise legal issues if it returned to the middle of the lane too aggressively and managed to cause a sideswipe.

Couple of posts on non-Ford systems: forums.edmunds.com/discussion/comment/3908846/#Comment_3908846 and forums.edmunds.com/discussion/comment/624323/#Comment_624323

sloflyer10

Regarding your comment on "....or perhaps thought it may raise legal issues if it returned to the middle of the lane too aggressively....", it's interesting to note from a 2011 article in Automobilemag.com on the 2012 Explorer Lane Keeping System that “Drivers can also program the level steering input provided to push the car back into its lane.” I sure wish it still had that capability.

stever

You know, it's probably something in the software. But good luck finding a dealer willing to tweak it, if that's possible.

jmbii

the only lane keep I've driven is Audis and it sounds similar. The car kind of "jumps" back into the lane thru wheel torque application. It was so subtle that most people wouldn't notice it without the notifications the car provides.