For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Ford F-Super Duty have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision. The Chevrolet Silverado HD doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The F-Super Duty offers optional Post Collision Braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Silverado HD doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The F-Super Duty offers an optional Reverse Brake Assist that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Silverado HD doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
Both the F-Super Duty and Silverado HD offer rear cross-traffic warning, but the F-Super Duty with Cross Traffic Alert also has Cross Traffic Braking (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Silverado HD’s Rear Cross Traffic Alert doesn’t automatically brake.
The F-Super Duty (except XL/XLT)’s optional driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Silverado HD doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the F-Super Duty and the Silverado HD have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, daytime running lights, rearview cameras, available four-wheel drive, crash mitigating brakes, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems and around view monitors.