The 2024 Ford F150 Tremor has 5.0 V8, BlueCruise self-steering. Photo by John Gilbert.

Are you as amused, or as troubled, as I am when you watch a baseball or football game and an auto ad interrupts the broadcast, and in almost every one of them you see a driver in a new vehicle driving aggressively along a curvy roadway and smiling broadly or laughing out loud at how much they’re enjoying it?

Mostly, I find them amusing when they are just smiling as they drive, but every once in a while, mostly with new Ford or Chevrolet vehicles, they are trying to find something to occupy their attention because the vehicle is driving itself. 

That’s what I find troubling. If the driver is so eager to engage the self-driving capabilities of their new car or truck, maybe they should let someone else get behind the wheel.

While I have experimented with a few self-driving vehicles, I enjoy driving so much that I can’t imagine wanting to forfeit that enjoyment — particularly to a machine!

However, I recently was driving a new 2024 Ford F-150  pickup truck. It was Oxford White, and it was the Tremor version of Ford’s endless stream of varying models of their popular pickups. 

That means it had an abundance of power from the 5.0-liter V8 engine, and sa 10-speed automatic transmission that was smooth-shifting all the way up and down.

My disappointment was because the Tremor, with all its sporty and extra-duty features, did not have shift paddles so I could shift for myself. But what do you expect for $80,375?

Yes, that was the price tag, and there were so many features and options loaded into it that excluding paddles might have been an oversight. 

The sticker listed everything, including the double-panel moonroof that covered the entire roof if you buzzed back the shade. It also indicated there was a power tailgate.

Now, Ford has led the way in tailgate design with their fold-down step and other tricks, but this is different. The tailgate has a door in the middle of it, which opens to the side for easy loading and unloading. 

If you flip the traditional center latch, the tailgate drops down traditionally, and also softly and gently. When you go to close it, you only have to lift it slightly before it automatically takes over and closes itself. Impressive.

It also included something called Bluecruise, which I didn’t give a second thought to. But there was a placard inside that gave thorough instructions how to engage a self-steering system, so I planned to take some time to read it carefully and experiment.

There we were, cruising down Interstate 35 from Duluth toward the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, heading for the Minnesota State Fair on the freeway, which is lined for many miles with orange barrels and pylons for construction, with the requisite lane-closures indicated by merge signs.

No problem, because traffic was fairly light. But early in the trip, I went to engage the cruise control, and when I did, I could feel the slight tug on the steering wheel. 

Sure enough, it was the self-driving system, which had engaged itself without my realization. I was passing some slower traffic when it engaged, so I relaxed my grip on the steering wheel just to see how the Tremor might operate itself.

It was smooth and trouble-free, using the lane-keeping feature to stay in its lane and stay out of trouble.

After I got past the slower traffic, I wanted to get back in the right lane, so I lightly tapped the turn indicator, and, to my surprise, the big F-150 changed lanes by itself! 

It simply veered to the right, one lane-width, and straightened itself. If there was a car there, it wouldn’t do it, but if the lane was clear, it was smooth and precise.

Same with the lane merges for construction, with the only problem there the frequent rude behavior fellow-drivers, who invariably speed up to 85 or so to get even with you and force their way ahead by 10 feet instead of courteously merging in behind you or alternating as zipper-merge rules request.

Returning to Duluth in late afternoon, we ran into a heavy rain squall, but it didn’t matter. The F-150 Tremor held its lane — this time at my consciously shifting into the self-drive mode — without hesitation. 

When we got back to Duluth, I realized that I had driven about 200 total miles on self-driving. And me, a strong advocate of doing your own driving.

I didn’t need it, but I appreciated it. In the ads, the driver might be clapping his hands or engaging in some active conversation with someone in the back seat. I appreciated being able to relax my hold on the steering wheel, but I never let my hands get too far away from an instant regripping of the wheel. 

In a couple of cases when the freeway lanes merged down to one lane, the F-150 would blink on with an instrument panel warning to “retake control,” and then shut off the auto-steering.

Still, all the features and creature-comfort assists were impressive, but the major attraction of the Tremor is the big V8 and its ability to surge with instant power at any touch of the gas pedal. 

Also, the suspension is firm but not harsh, unless you’re traveling light and trying to go too fast over the corrugated side streets of Duluth, in which case such driving is a built-in warning against going that fast.

The B & O sound system has 14 speakers, which is a lot for the confined cabin of a pickup, even the roomy SuperCrew 4-door F-150. 

The “mobile office” feature is designed so you can switch the shift lever to lower flat into the console, then flip the lid of the console forward to where it rests flat and becomes a surface that can double as a desk.

Might be too much of a temptation for those smiling, cheerful actors in the self-driving ads to have self-driving and also have a desk within arms reach.