For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Ford Ranger Raptor have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Honda Ridgeline doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the Ranger Raptor are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Ridgeline doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Ranger Raptor has standard Post Collision Braking, which automatically apply the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Ridgeline 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 Ranger Raptor has a standard Reverse Brake Assist that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Ridgeline doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the Ranger Raptor’s standard Trail Control allows you to creep down safely. The Ridgeline doesn’t offer Trail Control.
The Ranger Raptor has a standard 360-Degree Camera to allow the driver to see objects all around the vehicle on a screen. The Ridgeline only offers a rear monitor and front and rear parking sensors that beep or flash a light. That doesn’t help with obstacles to the sides.
The Ranger Raptor has a standard blind spot warning system that uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. Only the Ridgeline RTL/RTL-E/Black Edition offers a blind spot warning system.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Ranger Raptor has standard Cross Traffic Alert, helping the driver avoid collisions. Only the Ridgeline RTL/RTL-E/Black Edition offers Cross Traffic Monitor.
The Ranger Raptor’s 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 Ridgeline doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
The Ranger Raptor has standard 911 Assist, which uses a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver and a cellular system to get turn-by-turn driving directions or send emergency personnel to the scene if any airbags deploy. The Ridgeline doesn’t offer a GPS response system, only a navigation computer with no live response for emergencies, so if you’re involved in an accident and you’re incapacitated help may not come as quickly.
Both the Ranger Raptor and the Ridgeline have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems and rearview cameras.
The Ford Ranger Raptor weighs 815 to 889 pounds more than the Honda Ridgeline. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.