If you’ve ever been to East Texas, chances are you’ve driven on U.S. 290. This massive freeway nominally runs from Houston to Segovia—not a town, so much as a diminutive spec on the map—but the stretch between Houston and Austin is one of the most heavily trafficked routes in the state, making it a necessary headache for commuters in both metro areas. But one Houston resident with a Ford pickup is having a rougher go of it than many others thanks to a glitch in its driver-assistance tech.
Whenever Ryan Kattchee tries to use his 2024 F-150 Lariat’s adaptive cruise control feature on U.S. 290 near Jersey Village, the automatic braking system throws a bit of a fit, activating at random intervals and intensities, with little warning. And before you write this off as simply a random one-off incident, Kattchee not only has proof, but witnesses.
A few weeks back, Kattchee invited KPRC 2 along for a ride in his F-150 to demonstrate the problem, and demonstrate it he did. With the crew riding along, the adaptive cruise system hiccuped again and again. Each time, it displayed a collision alert in the instrument cluster and instantly applied the brakes—sometimes just briefly, others more aggressively. In one case, the truck suddenly slowed down by nearly 20 mph before Kattchee was able to intervene. It’s not just an inconvenience for him; it’s also embarrassing.
“People behind you probably think you’re the worst driver in Houston,” KPRC 2’s Gage Golding says to Kattchee while riding shotgun.
Believe me, that’s saying something. The station’s story states that while there’s no “rhyme or reason as to why this happens,” the adaptive cruise system in Kattchee’s truck seems to act up near overpasses and large overhead signage. It’s unclear whether that guess originated from the owner himself, the news channel during its ride-along, or techs attempting to diagnose the problem. It’s also unclear if this behavior only crops up on U.S. 290, or on other roads and highways as well.
Kattchee has been working with his dealer to try to resolve the issue for three months, but its service department has been stumped, attempting various fixes to no avail. His only remaining recourse is to pursue a buyback, which he says is in the works. The Drive reached out to Ford for comment but did not hear back by the time of publication, and we will update this post if that changes.
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