Remember the last time you steered a car with a knob? If you're like us, it was the radio-controlled monster truck you got for your tenth birthday and then proceeded to terrorize the family cat with.
Now, thanks to Ford, it's time to graduate to driving a real-life F-150 pickup by turning a knob: this world-altering experience comes thanks to the automaker's latest automated parking system, called Pro Trailer Backup Assist. Hook up your yacht, activate the system, and let the truck put the trailer where you want it by spinning a dash-mounted dial to the right of the steering wheel. Now anyone can park their trailer.
Ford says the system lets you steer a trailer "instinctively," with no more of this steer-right-to-go-left-oh-no-not-that-far-dammit-you-just-destroyed-sweet-Mrs-McPherson's-rose-garden nonsense.
Like the active park assist system available in Ford and Lincoln cars for many years now, the new setup controls the steering and vehicle speed; all you do is tell it where you want the trailer, and hit the brakes when you get there. The automaker says it has been developing Pro Trailer Backup Assist for 10 years, filing 15 patents along the way.
Pro Trailer Backup Assist is available now in the 2016 F-150 pickup.
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