Are Ford F-150 Lightning Frunks Killing People?
There’s a viral video of a Tesla Cybertruck’s motorized front trunk (frunk?) shutting and snapping a carrot in half. The implication is that the same frunk would cut off your finger if you left it in the way. My colleague Allison Barfield even found the bare metal edge of the Cybertruck’s frunk sharp enough to cut her hand. But while this dangerous Tesla is getting all the attention, I have to ask if Ford’s F-150 Lightning frunk is killing people. And for a completely different purpose.
As a legacy automaker, Ford has long-since perfected sensors to keep motorized hatches from latching over your fingers. But the F-150 has another deadly problem: huge blindspots. Ford had a chance to address this with the Lightning. and it chose not to. For vanity.
“Pickups, SUVs and vans with a hood height greater than 40 inches are about 45 percent more likely to cause fatalities in pedestrian crashes than cars and other vehicles with a hood height of 30 inches or less and a sloping profile…On some large pickups, the hoods are almost at eye level for many adults.”
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Pedestrian deaths continue to set new records. Many of these accidents are low-speed “frontovers” in parking lots. Shorter folks and children are especially susceptible. I think we need to get over the style trend of for tall truck grilles. In the short term, I think every pickup truck with a tall hood should come with a forward-facing camera, similar to the reverse camera, that comes on at low speeds.
For all theTesla Cybertruck’s shortcomings, it has a sloping hood to reduce blindspots up front. How is this possible? The drive units are smaller and at axle level: there is no motor up front. Ford’s F-150 Lightning has the same chassis layout. But to style it like every other F-150, Ford chose to keep a ridiculously tall hood and an empty 14.1 cubic foot compartment beneath that. Extra storage. In a truck that already has a bed. At risk of hitting more pedestrians.
There aren’t any recorded “frontover” accidents involving F-150 Lightnings yet. But with a 6,800-pound weight and 775 lb-ft of torque, they will prove even deadlier than with regular F-150s. Ford had a chance to buck the trend and save some lives. And it didn’t.
Next, find out what pickup owners say about bigger trucks causing pedestrian deaths, or see CBS’ deep dive on how unsafe trucks are becoming in the video below:
