In Ford’s video, Trail Control acts very much like an intelligent cruise control except it’s designed for off-roading. It’s more or less a combination of existing technologies such as hill-descent and hill-start or climb-assist that most serious off-road trucks already have.
While it might be new to Ford and the Raptor, a small number of carmakers already have similar systems in place in their trucks. Toyota and Lexus, for example, have Crawl Control and it’s been available for at least five years.
Be that as it may, the system controls throttle and brakes to get wheels independently working to get out of a tough situation. Funny thing however, Ford suggests to avoid getting mud/water above the bottom of the hubs. That’s likely because some of the sensors will become inoperable. An experienced driver can and should the able to manage well enough on their own but there’s no doubt that the technology is effective and works.
What’s sad is that it really does suck all the fun out of off-roading…
