tl;dr: Would there be any reason I can't take this ultra-modern car for a drive and test emergency procedures for killing the engine and shifting to neutral? I can't imagine there is, but mom would be pretty upset if I broke her car!
I love the sunroof or whatever it might be called. It's pretty much the entire roof, and it slides back over the rear window. It's wasted on her, like every roof hole she's had; she's always cold and never wants her hair messed up. I'd have the dang thing open all the time. Nice looking car. Center console is massively huge but at least it's not wasted, it's made of loads of cubbies and stuff...but nobody is getting cozy with their SO while driving it, that's for sure!
Anyway, she has keyless pushbutton start, pushbutton PRND*, and electric parking brake. In the event of some kind of major computer failure combined with unintended acceleration/stuck throttle she has no way to regain control or stop the 300HP car, period. Granted, that is so incredibly unlikely that it's not worth worrying about.
How about a more realistic unintended acceleration, like a floor mat that gets stuck and she can't unstick it? Brake + gas will trigger limited power mode but she'll still need to stop the car. How would she get it into neutral and kill the engine? Will the 'N' button obey? Will the Start/Stop button obey? The owner's manual doesn't say. It says:
http://www.fordservicecontent.com/Ford_ ... abled=True
Their title is inaccurate; the instructions are for stopping the vehicle and then stopping the engine. 2015 is long enough yet recent enough after the whole Toyota unintended acceleration that they should know to put proper information in there.Stopping the Engine When Your Vehicle is Moving
WARNING
Switching off the engine when the vehicle is still moving will result in a loss of brake and steering assistance. The steering will not lock, but higher effort will be required. When the ignition is switched off, some electrical circuits, including air bags, warning lamps and indicators may also be off. If the ignition was turned off accidentally, you can shift into neutral (N) and re-start the engine.
Put the transmission in position N and use the brakes to bring your vehicle to a safe stop.
When your vehicle has stopped, put the transmission in position P.
Press and hold the button for one second, or press it three times within two seconds.
Apply the parking brake.
So...is there anything totally weird that would actually get messed up if I test shutting the engine off at speed in Drive and Neutral? How about shifting to Neutral at speed? I just looked it up and found that it has a "Ford 6F50 (Ford-GM transmission)" which sounds like a common planetary automatic that should be fine. Plus, with all that smarter than the user technology I can't imagine it would allow me to break it with those electronic controls.