Ford Australia will soon issue an update to reduce the sensitivity of the ‘hands-off’ warning in some Ranger and Everest models following customer feedback.
EXCLUSIVE
The sensitivity of the hands-off detection of the steering wheel of the newest Ford Ranger and Ford Everest will be reduced following customer feedback, Drive can reveal.
Ford Australia has confirmed a software update will become available from mid-September for Model Year 2024.5 Ranger and Everest models, after customers raised concerns to Drive the system warned them too frequently in some driving situations.
“The calibration of the ‘hands-off’ warning for the Lane Centering and Lane Keeping Systems was updated for the MY24.5 Ranger and Everest,” said a Ford Australia spokesperson.
“This [current] calibration requires a greater amount of torque to be applied to the wheel for the driver’s hands to be detected compared to the version of the software which was launched in 2022. The amount of time the system takes to alert the driver remains unchanged.”
Ford Australia says it started working on a software update after it received customer feedback about the hands-off warning for the lane-support systems in the Ranger and Everest.
“Ford Australia has received feedback from customers regarding the hands-off warning of the Lane Centering and Lane Keeping Systems and has been actively working on a software update, which we expect will be available to roll out from mid-September,” added the spokesperson.
“To get the updated software, customers will need to schedule a free-of-charge service appointment with their nearest Ford Dealer.”
It is possible to deactivate the lane-support systems in the Ranger and Everest by double-pressing the lane assist button on the steering wheel, which will prevent the ‘keep hands on steering wheel’ message from appearing in the instrument cluster.
However, the Ford Australia spokesperson warned “this will also prevent these systems from providing driver assistance” and “disabling the Lane Keeping System is not recommended”. It will default to ‘on’ with each start-up.
Drive understands Ford Australia is also investigating customer concerns the driver attention alert system in the Ranger and Everest – which uses the same windscreen sensors as its lane-keep assist system to monitor driver movements – is too sensitive.
Speaking with Drive, a Model Year 2024.5 Ford Ranger Platinum customer – who asked to remain anonymous – said their vehicle began issuing ‘driver fatigue’ alerts in the instrument cluster multiple times on rural roads at speeds over 60 kilometres per hour immediately after they took delivery.
According to the owner’s manual, the driver alert system in the Ranger and Everest is activated at speeds above 64km/h.
The driver alert system in the Ford Ranger and Everest is different to driver-facing camera-based monitoring systems in vehicles such as the Mitsubishi Triton and Hyundai Santa Fe, which use an infrared camera ahead of the driver to monitor their eye movements.
Drive is seeking further clarification from Ford Australia on whether the software update announced for the hands-off function will also introduce any changes to the operation of the driver alert system in the Model Year 2024.5 Ranger and Everest.
The ‘hands-off steering wheel’ concern is the latest active safety feature to be called back for a software fix after Mitsubishi Australia admitted the Triton’s driver monitoring camera was ‘too sensitive’ in some situations – while Hyundai, Kia and Genesis have released a mute-button fix for its overspeed warning in certain vehicles.
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