Hello.

I have a 2018 Fiesta Titanium 1.0T EcoBoost 125ps 6-speed.

Last Friday when I switched the car on to get home from our local Waitrose I noticed an icon on the dash display that I'd not seen before. It looked like a mobile phone leaning away from a dotted vertical line to its left. I was distracted by this thing all the way home, wondering whether it was anything important.

Anyway, consulting the user manual revealed the icon to be Lane Assist, and it said that it illuminated 'when Lane Assist was switched on'. As I say, I've never seen it before and so I assume that it must have been switched off ever since I bought the car in December 2018. But now I can't seem to switch the thing off!

On Friday it was just a dim white icon, but today I did some motorway driving and Lane Assist was driving me bonkers. The icon was now sometimes green but changed colour to red whenever I changed lanes without indicating, and there is a sort of steering wheel trembler that kicks in as well that makes it feel like I'm driving over a rumble strip.

I do not want this 'feature' switched on, and I had it switched off until it spontaneously came on by itself. But in the settings menu on the dash I only seem to be given the option of 'low' and not 'off'. Does anyone know if there is a root directory to switch this off, or have Ford secretly sent out a software update preventing one from switching it off?

On fords It is often a switch on the end of the indicator arm. Toggle on and off. Try it and see, you should see messages coming up telling you it is off or on. Let us know if you are successful or this is a red herring - apologies if it is, as my experience is with Kugas.

From the Driving Aids section of the manual

Oh! BRILLIANT!! Thank you both ever so much.

When I looked in my manual I just looked up 'Lane Assist' when I'd found what the icon meant. This led me to the section where you can adjust it's sensitivity etc, which is accessed via the settings menu controls on the right-hand spoke of the wheel. So I never saw the section called 'Driver Aids'.

But how could I have missed the symbol on that left-hand stalk? It has been hiding in plain sight right in front of me for the last 3½ years!

And I realised how it got switched on on Friday as well now... On my way to Waitrose someone drove through a red light in front of me, and -senior moment- I tried to sound the horn by pressing the end of the left-hand stalk in, which was where the horn button was on a previous car of mine. Doh!

2 hours ago, quaffa said:

But how could I have missed the symbol on that left-hand stalk? 

Depending on your seat position and where you place your hand on the wheel, it's pretty easy to miss it tbh, particularly if (and it sounds as if you're like me) you switched it off the day you got the car and never bothered with it since.

2 hours ago, quaffa said:

- I tried to sound the horn by pressing the end of the left-hand stalk in, which was where the horn button was on a previous car of mine.

 Although it's not as bad as it must have been in the days when there was no standard layout for brake, clutch and accelerator, it can seem annoying that there's no common position for various functions - the horn is a case in point. 

When my Mrs got her present car she kept trying to switch the lights on with the indicator stalk, which was understandable as one she'd owned for many years had that function in a rotary switch on the end of the stalk. 

7 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

there's no common position for various functions - the horn is a case in point.

All my cars have had the horn in the middle of the steering wheel for 35 years so I think we're getting there (or else I've been choosing unusual cars???).

Funny how fashions changed. Back in 60s it was on steering wheel , then 70s/ 80s a lot had it on end of indicator stalk ( more reliable / easier to make as no carbon brush or clockspring needed) but then they moved back to steering wheel again.  Not sure what fords had it on stalk last.  Mk3 escort? 

During the 90's and early 00's Peugeots & Citroens had the horn on the indicator stalk.

I suspect it was cheaper & quicker for production as those models started with no drivers airbag, so no need for wiring into the steering wheel.

When I started driving this sort of arrangement was still quite common😀:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384620902674

17 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

When I started driving this sort of arrangement was still quite common😀:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384620902674

Not one of these then?

38 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Not one of these then?

Lol, I nearly put a comment in my post about that, but guessed some comedian would come up with it!😀

But being (vaguely) serious, "muscle memory" or whatever you want to call it persists a long time and  I at least tend to remember best what I learnt first.

I suspect Robin was perhaps not referring to his immediately previous car with the reference to the horn position, but what he was familiar with on earlier vehicles.

So, over the years having gone through a variety of horn positions, indicators moving from right to left and wipers/washers going the other way (after starting out as switches on the dash with a manual plunger for the washer), etc, etc, I always take time to thoroughly acquaint myself with the controls when driving a new (to me) vehicle. Not to mention remembering to keep the left leg well out of the way if driving an auto.

Even motorbikes have changed since I first learned - gear pedal used to be on the right, rear brake on the left, now they're t'other way round!