Thieves Are Stealing Expensive F-150 Super Duty Taillights

An unexpected downside of modern driver assistance technology has surfaced, highlighting a new vulnerability in high-tech vehicles: a sharp increase in thefts of taillight assemblies from Ford’s F-150 Super Duty trucks. These taillights, once simple lighting elements, are now packed with advanced sensors and sophisticated electronics essential to features like blind-spot monitoring, trailer detection, and rear cross-traffic alerts. As a result, they can cost as much as $2,700 to replace, turning them into a highly profitable target for thieves.

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The thefts are often quick and efficient, sometimes taking less than two minutes to complete, and leave truck owners with costly repairs and compromised safety systems. The trend has become so prevalent that it has prompted the development of a specialized anti-theft kit. Designed to deter or prevent the removal of the taillight units, the kit is already available for pre-order, with the first shipments expected to go out in late November. This growing issue underscores the unintended consequences of embedding expensive, easily accessible tech into vehicle exteriors.

Read more at Driven.

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