Elect. Exten/ fold trailer tow mirrors- when I want to fold out my mirrors I push the button for green light to come on and power up. Then push the down arrow to fold out and then look at mirror and say to myself why did you not fold out. When I turn my headlights on they come on instant. There is a couple second delay between green light on and being able to fold out mirrors. I I wait a couple seconds after light comes on then it works.

Collision avoidance system- I can not tell you how many times it has gone off in bright sunlight going under a overpass and the truck see the shadow of the overpass on road and system activates. Not a single thing has been in front of me when this happens.

Blind spot monitoring- twice now I have been on the highway in a heavy rain down pour and blind spot monitoring has gone into a fault mode showing the light is both driver and passenger mirror and no traffic anywhere around me.

Lane keeping system- when activated your steering wheel should vibrate when you drift out of your lane. The green arrow on dash will go from green to yellow on the side you drift out of. Who constantly looks at their dash driving down the road for the arrow to change colors? When activated I can drift out of lane to the point I am half way out of my lane before the steering wheel vibrates. By this time in oncoming traffic a accident would have happened.

Yes the owners manual talks about these things but with the amount of money these options cost they should be more refined.

 

I don't like any of that technology in any vehicle. I don't even have power windows!

Just wait till you are trying to use your adaptive cruise control when it's snowing. When the sensors clog up with snow the system will shut down.

 

I'm with glc... there's more than enough technology to break in my 2007 F150 with the old 4.2l V6 and 5 speed manual transmission... let alone these newer trucks.

 

Other than power retract tow mirrors, all that other "driving" aid stuff would be useless for me.. Same with that new trailer backup feature... If you can't back up a trailer, I'd have to ask why are you towing a trailer in the first place?

Yes, I'm an old fart and know what dwell, points, air/fuel mixture screws are and even how to use a timing light!

So, I'm a bit biased on it all.. Heck, my 13 has more distracting stuff on it that I don't really care about..

Anyway, good luck with the new tech stuff.. I will probably have to face it at some point, but I also thought I'd be buried in my 97 F150! ha, ha!

Mitch

 

I thought the same when I had my 1998 F 150. I hauled and towed everything with that truck. A true workhorse of a truck for me. Due to the high mileage I put on it when I saw the 2004 I had to have one. I tow a 26 foot travel trailer with my 2015 with the 5.0 and when towing it average mpg is 10.5. Regular driving non towing I get 19.5 mpg. How is your mpg with that ecoboost? My brother in law just got an ecoboost and he is curious about its capabilities. He is like me. Has had F 150’s his whole life.

 

I can't talk about the technology in 2015+ trucks, since mine is a 2014, but I CAN say I don't care for the automatic windshield wipers in my truck. They work fine when it starts to rain, but if I need to clean the windshield, activating them seems a bit complicated. Other than that, I like the auto headlights, auto seat position, heated/cooled seats and the built-in trailer brake controller. I also like the 6-speed transmission, which I did not expect to like.

On the subject of lane keeping, blind spot camera and collision alert - my other vehicle, a 2013 Honda Accord has these features. The blind spot camera has never activated when I didn't want it to. Lane keeping DOES get confused at times by sunlight or reflections off wet roads, but in the Honda this just sounds a warning and flashes a small light in the dash. When it activates due to a real lane drift, it happens just as the car is moving to the edge of the lane, so it gives a useful warning, before a dangerous situation has developed. The collision alert has NEVER given me a false alarm, and in fact saved me from rear-ending a car in town once when he slowed to nearly a stop in the middle of the block and I was distracted, not expecting him to do so. In the Honda, it just flashes a light in the windshield and sounds a loud warning. It happened in time for me to safely brake to avoid the collision.

So, I suspect some of this technology CAN, and will, be refined as time goes on. I think we're stuck with it, as we move toward self-driving vehicles.

- Jack

 

Sounds like the technology on your Honda was much more refined than it is on my 2015 F150 Lariat.

 

Yes I had so much mor fun and enjoyment in the days of dwell, points, 2/4 barrel carburetors when driving in those days. It was much more easy and enjoyable to work on your own vehicle. Been there, done that.

 

How many miles do you now have on your 2014 Platinum 3.5 L Ecoboost? I have herd some bad things (carbon build up) about those engines when they get 80,000 plus miles on them. That is why I went with the V8.