Auto Brake Feature - Be Careful

[19RamLimited]

Well. I hate starting threads. Especially those that van be perceived as whiney. I really had the S*** scared out of myself and family today. I do not drive a lot of miles due to work being close to home. Also still have my 13 so I drive it still. Today I decided to drive the new truck. I did a lot of driving today actually. Well long story short. I was driving along and the truck started beeping as if there was a car and slammed on the brakes. HOLY S***! Tires screeched wife screamed kids yelled and NOTHING. There was no car.. no anything. Completely empty road in front and luckily behind because I would have for sure been rear ended. I was not on cruise control I was on a side street. Then once I got to a light about a block away I came to a voluntary stop and the truck demanded to be put into park and wouldn't move out of that until I actually cycled the ignition.

Man. I have had the brake kick in going reverse but forwards at 50 MPH. Thats a terrible situation. SO I have disabled it for now. I have 1400 miles not he truck.

I love the adaptive cruise its a great thing but this made me a bit gun shy for sure. Anyways. Just a heads up guys not anymore than a vent from me. I had to let it be know that it had happened.

 

[Jared B]

Well. I hate starting threads. Especially those that van be perceived as whiney. I really had the S*** scared out of myself and family today. I do not drive a lot of miles due to work being close to home. Also still have my 13 so I drive it still. Today I decided to drive the new truck. I did a lot of driving today actually. Well long story short. I was driving along and the truck started beeping as if there was a car and slammed on the brakes. HOLY S***! Tires screeched wife screamed kids yelled and NOTHING. There was no car.. no anything. Completely empty road in front and luckily behind because I would have for sure been rear ended. I was not on cruise control I was on a side street. Then once I got to a light about a block away I came to a voluntary stop and the truck demanded to be put into park and wouldn't move out of that until I actually cycled the ignition.

Man. I have had the brake kick in going reverse but forwards at 50 MPH. Thats a terrible situation. SO I have disabled it for now. I have 1400 miles not he truck.

I love the adaptive cruise its a great thing but this made me a bit gun shy for sure. Anyways. Just a heads up guys not anymore than a vent from me. I had to let it be know that it had happened.

Thanks for sharing, that would be scary for sure. I remember some posts on an F150 forum of people having that issue when adaptive cruise was on, definitely scary if it happened to you without adaptive cruise enabled. I'd get it to a dealer to have the emergency braking system checked out.

 

[Cattail cruncher]

Yep take it in that is crazy!

 

[alow]

Please let us know what you come up with. I've had it kick in for no perceived reason twice while backing and it was bad enough that way. I can only imagine it locking up going straight ahead. Makes me think about disabling it until I get to a lot.

 

[Ezshooter]

I am very interested in what you find out from the dealer... I use adaptive cruise control in my Avalon all of the time as well and a big reason I'm going back to a truck was that the advanced driver aids are available now. I remember a recall with Toyota that was caused because the sensor array could detect something like a metal strip / expansion joint reinforcement in the road and cause the same thing - emergency stop. If I remember, the situation was if you were going downhill towards a level piece of street that had metal on the surface - as if a metal car was at the bottom of the downslope. Never had it happen to me, but obviously it was serious enough to replace $1500-2000 worth of sensors and programming from the dealer on a production run.

 

[VectorZ]

I don't think it's totally uncommon regardless of the make. Here's 88 pages on the F150 forum.
https://www.f150forum.com/f118/adaptive-cruise-malfunctions-scary-299485/

 

[392DCGC]

There shouldn't be any issues with the safety braking when reversing. Those sensors don't see very far. Only time I get false braking is if I back up towards a curb too fast.

The forward collision & adaptive cruise on this truck is absolutely ****. I've had many false alerts and unnecessary slow downs from it (no panic braking though). Every other FCA vehicle I had with FCW/ACC were fine (4 Jeep's, 2 Charger's). Whoever calibrated the sensors or software for these trucks needs fired. I'm guessing it's because they're no longer using the obvious orb shaped transmitter/receiver that you see on the bottom of the front bumper of previous FCA vehicles - now the radar transmitter/receiver is hidden (as it should be), but it isn't working very well.

 

[19RamLimited]

Hi. Yes it was scary to say the least. I had never had the auto brake kick in like that on any car. The warning chimes have come on before in the truck and other cars but never kicked in like this. It was not in cruise so that was even more strange. There is a reprogram tab for it kicking in while I’m reverse. I have witech and a micro pod and there were no codes. So not sure what the dealer can do. I don’t really like the idea of them trying to drive it and relocate the issue.

I will Read the f150 posts and see what they say or have encountered.

It’s extremely dangerous. It’s nice to have if working correctly but once is enough to make you hesitate. I didn’t drive today because the family was not wanting to ride in it. May take them some time to get over that.

I will keep this up to date if it happens again and if anyone else has it please share.

Again not trying to whine or complain just bringing it to attention.

Thanks guys

 

[VectorZ]

Hi. Yes it was scary to say the least. I had never had the auto brake kick in like that on any car. The warning chimes have come on before in the truck and other cars but never kicked in like this. It was not in cruise so that was even more strange. There is a reprogram tab for it kicking in while I’m reverse. I have witech and a micro pod and there were no codes. So not sure what the dealer can do. I don’t really like the idea of them trying to drive it and relocate the issue.

I will Read the f150 posts and see what they say or have encountered.

It’s extremely dangerous. It’s nice to have if working correctly but once is enough to make you hesitate. I didn’t drive today because the family was not wanting to ride in it. May take them some time to get over that.

I will keep this up to date if it happens again and if anyone else has it please share.

Again not trying to whine or complain just bringing it to attention.

Thanks guys

Make sure to file a NHTSA complaint if you're in the US.

 

[dutchman187]

This isn't whining man, it's a pretty big problem (might not be widespread, but certainly a scary, potentially serious issue). Going backwards at slow speeds is one thing, but emergency type braking at high speeds for no reason is the thing of future lawsuits.

 

[VectorZ]

This is where having a dashcam can be really useful in diagnosing the problem.

 

[19RamLimited]

This is where having a dashcam can be really useful in diagnosing the problem.

I have one .. I just didn’t install it yet. Been lazy. The heat here has been too much for me to work in. I think I need to install it now for sure just so if I were to have it happen again and actually cause a collision I would need to have it.

I have a dash cam in all of my cars. I have only had this one a month and I got one when I got the truck. I wish I could have shown what happened

 

[GM convert]

8000 miles mostly adaptive cruise set at 80 or 90, no issues.

 

[Maconi]

As far as I know (and I could totally be wrong), Chrysler's (Ram's) braking system can't stop the car for you when traveling above a certain speed (although it can stop you at parking lot speeds I believe). It just starts going nuts and pumping your brakes to get your attention.

You should be able to ignore it and keep driving (although it is advised to pull over when possible and see what's freaking the sensors out as something may have impacted one of them like a giant bug or rock). If it keeps happening the dealer might need to adjust/replace some of the sensors.

 

[Slim]

Hi. Yes it was scary to say the least. I had never had the auto brake kick in like that on any car. The warning chimes have come on before in the truck and other cars but never kicked in like this. It was not in cruise so that was even more strange. There is a reprogram tab for it kicking in while I’m reverse. I have witech and a micro pod and there were no codes. So not sure what the dealer can do. I don’t really like the idea of them trying to drive it and relocate the issue.

I will Read the f150 posts and see what they say or have encountered.

It’s extremely dangerous. It’s nice to have if working correctly but once is enough to make you hesitate. I didn’t drive today because the family was not wanting to ride in it. May take them some time to get over that.

I will keep this up to date if it happens again and if anyone else has it please share.

Again not trying to whine or complain just bringing it to attention.

Thanks guys

Out of all the various problems I have seen posted about the new 2019, this one is the most concerning to me.......

 

[19RamLimited]

I have replayed that situation 100 times over in my head. Im someone that can accept blame or can take accountability if I were to have caused something. I don't blame. I am an engineer so things are only either a problem or solution. I see the video above. Im not sure about the speed limitation. It happened extremely fast and the speed was above 40 most likely closer to 50 as I have a heavy foot. I do wish I had the dash cam installed. We could all look at it and have a better idea of the situation.

Im the first I believe to have this happen so I will not lay sole blame at FCA because I cant. I don't know what I could have done to prevent it. It was not on Adaptive cruise because I was on a side street. As well it leads me to believe a malfunction of some kind due to it forcing me to go to park and not allowing it out of park without cycling the ignition. I was eyes on the road because I do NOT text or email or anything of the kind while driving. I always have my kids with me and nothing is that important.

Anyways be mindful and if anyone else runs into this hopefully they will have a camera I will starting this week.

 

[gatorhwk]

This isn't whining man, it's a pretty big problem (might not be widespread, but certainly a scary, potentially serious issue). Going backwards at slow speeds is one thing, but emergency type braking at high speeds for no reason is the thing of future lawsuits.

No doubt ... that's nuts! I've just started looking at this truck along with this "safety' package ... now I'm hesitating.

 

[202snowman]

8000 miles mostly adaptive cruise set at 80 or 90, no issues.

Slow down!

 

[Flot]

I've got 2500 miles and have only had a couple of warning surprises and two brake events at very low speed. Just the other day I'm driving down a super-congested highway at 70 mph with bad lane markers, narrow lanes, dividing "sticks" to separate HOV lanes, and I did have a twitch of wondering whether all the sensors etc would work through it. They did fine.

I will say the auto wipers have come on for one swipe a handful of times on bright sunny days.

I've never owned a car with ACC before but I've used it maybe 200 miles - impressed with it overall. If you're seeing issues with it I'd definitely consider a trip to the dealer.

 

[Ezshooter]

You don't not need to have Adaptive Cruise Control engaged for the Forward Collision Warning system to be engaged. My guess would be this has something to do with switching to a camera based system for the Adaptive Cruise Control sensor...

That, sir, is an excellent point. ACC is not necessarily involved with a forward colllision system. On my Avalon, I think the same sensor array was used with different responses depending on engagement/ disengagement of each. BUT the point is that they can be independent.

Related to the original post - I’ve had my Avalon slow me down rapidly without anything in front of me - quickly corrected by hitting the right pedal judiciously with my right foot! I’m curious if FCA addresses this the same way - I.e. conscious input trumps autonomous system.