My Truck is a 2015 Ford F 150 Lariat 5.0 v8 4 x 4 Supercrew six speed auto transmission. My truck has all the technology you would want. Folding/extending trailer tow mirrors, Lane Keeping, auto parallel park, adaptive cruise control, gps navigation, blind spot monitoring, collision avoidance, 360 degree camera, back up camera, front camera, automatic running in boards, etc. Don’t get me wrong technology can be good when it works. My biggest complaint with the technology built into my truck is that it is not refined enough yet. Sometimes I think I am the Ginny pig ford Ford Motor Company. Ok here is the major safety concern. Tonight while driving on a highway with a posted speed of 70mph and cruise control set I checked my brake lights while looking through the side mirror while applying the brake. The brake lights lite up as I slowed down disengaging the cruise control as it should have. Then I picked up speed back to 70 mph and set the cruise control at 70mph. Then while looking out my side mirror again watching the edge of the tail light I used the negative button for cruise control on the steering wheel to tell cruise control to slow me down. The faster you push that button the faster cruise control slows you down. Well guess what? The brake lights do not light up while slowing down in this operation. Beware. Do not do this if someone is behind you.

 

I don't think the lights are supposed to light up when you decelerate. When you push those buttons, it is coasting.

 

Makes sense they wouldn't come on.

 

It is coasting if you push and hold the negative button. If you repeatedly push the negative button with cruise control engaged you can easily slow down from 70 mph to 55 mph or less without any brake input from the driver. Slowing down using the negative button feels just like what you you would feel stepping on the brake. The faster you push the negative button the faster you slow down. My wife says she uses the brake. I said the truck has the technology so why not use it.If your truck does not have adaptive cruise control go test drive one from a dealer that has it and see for yourself.

 

I don't think by law they need to make it do that. When folks are behind you, they need to follow safe driving habits.

How about engine braking? There's no brake lights.

Some of my trucks can slow just as fast with engine braking than with brakes, if not quicker.

That's why I like NY's laws in rear enders. Essentially, all motorists should be able to come to a stop when a vehicle ahead suddenly stops or slows down – this is safe driving. Drivers must leave ample room between themselves and the car in front of them just for this reason; so that they can safely come to a stop without it resulting in a collision.

 

Remember folks! This is on a truck with Adaptive Cruise Control ( not regular cruise control).

 

When your foot is on the go pedal, and you lift, no brake lights will illuminate unless you step on the brake pedal.
When you are driving with cruise control, and you press the negative button, cancel button, or turn off cruise and your foot is not resting on the go pedal, the truck will decrease in speed. No brake lights will illuminate unless you step on the brake pedal. You are in charge of that function.
The '15 owner's manual gives a great "how to" of the adaptive cruise control. I do not have it in my truck. I also did not see if the lights come on though. I also believe there is an alarm that sounds if your truck starts to decrease speed that fast to where you have to do the braking yourself. That will definitely illuminate the brake lights.

I also do a brake light check when stopped. It's not nice to give a brake check to someone on the highway at 70 MPH...

 

First off Bill, you don't use cruise in traffic. That's just plain ol' country common sense. You also don't ever depend on any technology. It can fail at any time. Brake lights don't work when you let off of the gas so why would you expect them to come on when all you did with the cruise was let off of the gas.
Are you by any chance a beginner driver?

 

I would think common sense would tell you not to use the steering wheel mounted cruise control for slowing down knowing that the brake lights do not come on. I use it to reduce my speed when I need to but not when there's heavy traffic behind. Even then it's a gradual small increment slow-down.

 

In New York’s law who is at fault if your brakes lights did not work? You or the person that ran into the back of you because you abruptly slowed down and the driver behind you did not se your brakes lights come on and realize you were slowing till the last minute and they could not slow fast enough and ran into the back of you. Years ago the rule for safe distance was 1 car length for every 10 mph. The rule here now is the 3 second rule for a safe distance to follow.

 

It's still the fault of the person that rear ended you.

2 years ago I was in another coworkers car, the coworker didn't know their stop lamps weren't working. Well, long story short, he got rear ended, and he got a fix-it ticket for inoperable stop lamps/safety device. The other driver that rear ended him, got a slew of tickets, like following to close, aggravated driving, etc. When my coworker went to his appearance, and showed the receipt that his mechanic fixed it, the ticket was then dropped. The person's insurance who rear ended my coworker, had to pay for the repairs.

Here's another case -- I'm sitting minding my own business at a stop light, with my foot off the brake (so no brake lights), a car suddenly comes flying up, and rear ends me. Is it my fault that I didn't have my foot on the brake pedal to illuminate my brake lights? Nope. Again, the person must safely come to a stop without it resulting in a collision. No different than a parked or stalled car sitting in the middle of the street.

I know NY's law on rear end collisions is pretty cut and dry. They have no sympathy for the person that causes the rear end accident, hence why they are guaranteed a ticket (or a few) when this happens. About one of the only things I like about NY. Not sure if you ever been rear ended, but physically it hurts and it ain't cool! Whiplash is no fun. Trust me, I've been in two incidents.

All I know is that it makes me refrain from tailgating anyone or anything, just because of the consequences and the feeling of it.

 

Labnerd- where do you learn to belittle someone you know nothing about and have never met? Did you learn that trait when senior member was put by your name or were you born that way. I got my drivers license at 14 and current age is 63. Been around the world 4 times. Seen a lot and have done a lot. Use country common sense because I now live in the country. Moved here when I retired to slow down and enjoy life. I use cruise control all the time in traffic. When the posted speed is 55, 65 or 70 I set my cruise control for posted speed limit and let the rest of the traffic do their thing. I get better gas mileage this way. If you read each word of the thread you would have keyed in on two things. I was doing the posted speed of 70 mph at night. I also said my truck has adaptive cruise control. It has capabilities regular cruise control doesn’t. It can apply a bracking force with zero input from driver. Did you climb back to the top of that ladder or stay down with normal folks? Thanks for your 2 cent.

 

All right, I call it "even". Let's keep the thread civil, guys.

- Jack

 

When I was on the highway that Night doing posted speed of 70 mph no one else was around or near me so that is why I did the test. My whole thing about this is from a safety point of view. Since my truck is equipped with the collision avoidance system and adaptive cruise control seems like if adaptive cruise someone abruptly slow down in front of me and the adaptive cruise control sees this and slows me down activating the brake lights then slowing down using steering wheel controls this way should also activate brake lights. Yes my collision avoidance system will do a visual and audiable alarm and charge the brake system so when you hit the brakes they are suppose to react quicker.

 

Thanks. I was doing some research for a new car and driver yesterday and saw there was an update available for some F150 cruise control systems. NHTSA site.