Adaptive Cruise Control problems of the 2021 Ford Escape

Two problems related to adaptive cruise control have been reported for the 2021 Ford Escape. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2021 Ford Escape based on all problems reported for the 2021 Escape.

1 Adaptive Cruise Control problem

Failure Date: 05/01/2024

Our 2021 Ford Escape has "intelligent" adaptive cruise control. It has the capacity to adjust our car speed based on the highway speed limit signs it encounters. It reads all speed correctly but it also reads "black and white, square, numeric, county road signs as speed signs. This is dangerous as many county road signs have numerics that drastically exceed the posted speed limit and cause the car to rapidly excellerate around a curve or in neighborhood settings. So for example, in a 35 mph speed zone, the car sees the county road 85 sign and rapidly attempts to excelerate by 50 mph to 85 mph. This surprises you and forces you to seek the brake pedal in an attempt to avoid a casualty. We have reported this to Ford and brought our vehicle in twice now regarding the issue. On 10/5/22 Ford replaced the car's image module to help clarify highway signs for adaptive cruise. This did not remedy the problem. After nearly running over an animal because of this issue, we brought the car back to Ford on 5/8/24 to correct this issue under our nearly expired warranty. They had our vehicle for 3 weeks. We furnished them with photos of the county road signs the car's speed was erroneously triggered by, such as CO rd 85 or 106! after much research with Ford International, the dealer determined that this is a software bug. On a recent "on-line" Ford document, on page 289, it states "note: the system may not detect all speed signs and may incorrectly read signs. " this can occur when the county road signs are similar in shape and color to a speed limit sign. This is a limitation of the system and currently cannot be avoided or corrected. " please understand this information is not listed in our 2021 Escape owners manual. Furthermore, on the 2024 Escape loaner vehicle we had for 3 weeks while ours was in the shop, Ford changed out their adaptive cruise control system from "intelligent to predictive" which now uses gps to compensate. Meanwhile our car remains a hazard to drive. Help!.

2 Adaptive Cruise Control problem

Failure Date: 09/01/2023

I was in the middle of driving and going around a curve and all of a sudden advance trac warning light is on hill assist warning comes on and pre collision assist comes on and none of the stability sensors are working in my car and I noticed my steering is very off sometimes it’s stiffer than usual and sometimes it’s not as stiff and that is dangerous I think it definitely needs to be recalled that’s very serious can cause loss of control of the vehicle.


Other Forward Collision Avoidance related problems of the 2021 Ford Escape

Warnings problems
3
Adaptive Cruise Control problems
2
Sensing System Camera problems
1


Safety Ratings of Escape Cars
Fuel Economy of Escape Vehicles
Escape Service Bulletins
Escape Safety Recalls
Escape Defect Investigations