BlueCruise v1 is a Let Down

[HDer]

In case anyone is trying to make a decision on the Tech package like we did.

When we first ordered our Mach-E, we were trying to decide whether or not to get the Tech package. We ultimately got the Rt1 which had it included. A big part of it was because of BlueCruise. It wasn't due to the "park assist" I'll tell you that. Given the equivalent FSD mode on Teslas cost 10K we thought it was a good investment.

Fast forward a year and we finally have BlueCruise installed by the dealer. They insisted when we took it in for the windshield recall.

And... it kind of sucks.

The main problem with BlueCruise is that it goes in and out, without seemingly much rhyme or reason. Maybe the lane lines aren't marked completely clearly in one section or there's a slight blip in GPS coordinates. Whatever the case, I don't think I've had a BlueCruise session on for longer than 3-5 minutes. And this is in the SF Bay Area where presumably they've been doing testing for years and years now.

The other problem with it is that I really haven't noticed any functional differences between it and the Lane Keep Assist feature. Yes it lane centers and does adaptive cruise control just like Lane Keep Assist, but it has the same foibles, including sometimes getting too close to the outside lane line, taking (subjectively) the less safe line on turns, not leaving enough space for cars merging into my lane, etc. For such a big name and marketing change the differences in the actual brains of the feature, if any, are incredibly subtle.

Add to that the fact that it's highway only, no lane changing, no easy way to see in car what parts of a trip are BlueCruise enabled, and it just seems to be a really half baked feature that maximum allows me to take my hands off the steering wheel for a couple of minutes at a time.

Hopefully it gets better over time, but if I were to make the choice all over again, I would definitely skip BlueCruise.

TL;DR: BlueCruise turns off too frequently, adds almost nothing to Lane Keep Assist, and is nowhere close to Tesla's FSD.

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[Ravensfan1996]

If you compare it to a 10k Tesla option yeah you will be disappointed. Its pretty much been advertised as the adaptive cruise control but you can take your hands off the wheel. I just got it last week and its exactly what i thought it was. I noticed it shut off on me in areas of very tight curve (which i heard it does) and also in areas i knew where very recently finished construction projects. Probably not programmed yet. Lane changing is supposedly coming soon. It does straddle the line to the right more then i would like, but I only feel comfortable with BC on with not alot of cars around anyway. I like it so far, have a trip in a few weeks and will be nice to have this option. I have it free for year, so ill see then if ill pay the $600.

 

[HDer]

If you compare it to a 10k Tesla option yeah you will be disappointed.

True, but Ford has been telling customers, the press, their investors, etc. that this is their answer to Tesla's Autopilot and GM's Supercruise. So they're the ones inviting the comparison.

I think part of the problem might be that I genuinely like and enjoy the adaptive cruise control/lane keep assist. It's not perfect, and I had to turn off the "intelligent" speed sign detection because it kept slowing me down to like 35 on random stretches of the highway, but it's a truly helpful feature in a lot of circumstances, and in my opinion enhances the safety of my driving.

BlueCruise, on the other hand, just feels like Lane Keep Assist v1.0.1 with a new blue skin, which after it being cool the first couple of times, makes things harder to read.

I think if we got the car brand new with BlueCruise enabled, and didn't know that Lane Keep Assist could already do 99.9% of what it's doing, then I might like it more?

 

[1969Camaro]

Mine ping pongs from side to side in the lane and it gets very scared if the road curves and bongs to help it.

 

[ZuleMME]

Mine ping pongs from side to side in the lane and it gets very scared if the road curves and bongs to help it.

Yep I notice very considerable ping pong, just as a slow oscillation rate. And always pulling to the right first followed by the straiten, left, right, etc. Sometimes on a long enough stretch it will get going nice and smooth in the middle of the lane. Honestly it just feels like the PID control loop isn't set as well as it should be. Or that the torque it applies isn't enough. With any luck they will continue to tune things.

 

[Neil4Real]

I think it very heavily depends on what routes you'll be regularly taking/counting on it working. My route to work and all the freeways I drive for errands, friends, etc. work flawlessly here in Southern California.

For my route to work, I literally get on the freeway, turn it on and don't touch the wheel but for when I come up to the toll booth, as it disengages there, and then it reengages about 100 feet past the toll booth and I don't touch the wheel again until I have to exit the freeway. It is insanely amazing for me and super useful.

 

[HDer]

I think it very heavily depends on what routes you'll be regularly taking/counting on it working. My route to work and all the freeways I drive for errands, friends, etc. work flawlessly here in Southern California.

For my route to work, I literally get on the freeway, turn it on and don't touch the wheel but for when I come up to the toll booth, as it disengages there, and then it reengages about 100 feet past the toll booth and I don't touch the wheel again until I have to exit the freeway. It is insanely amazing for me and super useful.

Does your dash display stay blue the whole time or does it revert back to the white background and blue bubble mode from time to time? If I'm not changing lanes I can keep lane keep assist (white background with blue bubble mode) going for a long time, but I generally only have the full BlueCruise (blue everything dash) for about 3-5 minutes at a time.

 

[Kitten]

I've grown to like it more, but do find it to be basically glorified adaptive cruise control with lane assist. Although straight lane assist in no way handles curves the way BC does. It can be super jerky at times, and I don't like when at highway speeds the car in front of me has its brake lights on and the car waits too long (imo) to slow down. I still have some trust issues with it.

I had the same problem of BC randomly turning off and canceling every couple of seconds recently on a 3 hour road trip. It seems to get super nervous on highway interchanges. But we had a nice spell going for a long stretch of 86 and I really enjoyed it.

It also doesn't like it when I try to devour an entire meal. It's ok with some general snacking, but once I bring in an entree, side dish, and drink, it gets kind of judgy.

 

[bristol16]

Mine has worked really well for me. I use it on the Mass Pike going to work and back most days, frequent 150 mile round trips to NH and back, and used it on a 220 mile round trip this weekend. I find it hugs the lane marking on the passenger side of the vehicle more than I would like it to, but other than that it rarely turns off except areas where the lane markings disappear due to roadwork. I've had other vehicles with adaptive cruise systems and this one works better than those did. If the Blazer SS pans out I may get to try GM's Supercruise in the next couple years too...

 

[MacherAWD]

Blue cruise in stop and go traffic is lovely. Let the car do the driving, goes to 0, accelerates again.

 

[OriginalGoof]

True, but Ford has been telling customers, the press, their investors, etc. that this is their answer to Tesla's Autopilot and GM's Supercruise. So they're the ones inviting the comparison.

I think part of the problem might be that I genuinely like and enjoy the adaptive cruise control/lane keep assist. It's not perfect, and I had to turn off the "intelligent" speed sign detection because it kept slowing me down to like 35 on random stretches of the highway, but it's a truly helpful feature in a lot of circumstances, and in my opinion enhances the safety of my driving.

BlueCruise, on the other hand, just feels like Lane Keep Assist v1.0.1 with a new blue skin, which after it being cool the first couple of times, makes things harder to read.

I think if we got the car brand new with BlueCruise enabled, and didn't know that Lane Keep Assist could already do 99.9% of what it's doing, then I might like it more?

See this is where a lot of people get confused though. Tesla Autopilot is not the same as Tesla’s FSD upgrade. Autopilot is essentially the exact same as BlueCruise. Autopilot comes standard on all new Teslas and is described as the following per Tesla’s website.

Autopilot
Autopilot includes the following functionality and features:

• Traffic-Aware Cruise Control: Matches the speed of your car to that of the surrounding traffic
• Autosteer: Assists in steering within a clearly marked lane, and uses traffic-aware cruise control

 

[HDer]

See this is where a lot of people get confused though. Tesla Autopilot is not the same as Tesla’s FSD upgrade. Autopilot is essentially the exact same as BlueCruise. Autopilot comes standard on all new Teslas and is described as the following per Tesla’s website.

Autopilot
Autopilot includes the following functionality and features:

• Traffic-Aware Cruise Control: Matches the speed of your car to that of the surrounding traffic
• Autosteer: Assists in steering within a clearly marked lane, and uses traffic-aware cruise control

Yup, the terminology is all a little screwed up, but my salesperson straight up told us when we were cross shopping that BlueCruise was only $600 compared to the 10K we'd have to pay at Tesla.

Also, Mobileye, the makers of the BlueCruise tech, showed a demo of them doing fully autonomous driving in Manhattan in Fords last year: and it's clear that whatever is installed in these Mach-E's is not even close to the same level one year later.

My take is that Lane Keep Assist is supposed to compete with base Autopilot and BlueCruise is supposed to compete eventually with FSD (hence the added subscription cost). But for whatever reason the tech is behind schedule, so they've rolled out something that's basically a reskin of their existing feature.

 

[K.B.]

In case anyone is trying to make a decision on the Tech package like we did.

When we first ordered our Mach-E, we were trying to decide whether or not to get the Tech package. We ultimately got the Rt1 which had it included. A big part of it was because of BlueCruise. It wasn't due to the "park assist" I'll tell you that. Given the equivalent FSD mode on Teslas cost 10K we thought it was a good investment.

Fast forward a year and we finally have BlueCruise installed by the dealer. They insisted when we took it in for the windshield recall.

And... it kind of sucks.

The main problem with BlueCruise is that it goes in and out, without seemingly much rhyme or reason. Maybe the lane lines aren't marked completely clearly in one section or there's a slight blip in GPS coordinates. Whatever the case, I don't think I've had a BlueCruise session on for longer than 3-5 minutes. And this is in the SF Bay Area where presumably they've been doing testing for years and years now.

The other problem with it is that I really haven't noticed any functional differences between it and the Lane Keep Assist feature. Yes it lane centers and does adaptive cruise control just like Lane Keep Assist, but it has the same foibles, including sometimes getting too close to the outside lane line, taking (subjectively) the less safe line on turns, not leaving enough space for cars merging into my lane, etc. For such a big name and marketing change the differences in the actual brains of the feature, if any, are incredibly subtle.

Add to that the fact that it's highway only, no lane changing, no easy way to see in car what parts of a trip are BlueCruise enabled, and it just seems to be a really half baked feature that maximum allows me to take my hands off the steering wheel for a couple of minutes at a time.

Hopefully it gets better over time, but if I were to make the choice all over again, I would definitely skip BlueCruise.

TL;DR: BlueCruise turns off too frequently, adds almost nothing to Lane Keep Assist, and is nowhere close to Tesla's FSD.

I have had the Blue cruise installed about 3weeks ago now, and in the Washington DC area up to New Jersey, I have not had any problem on Interstate 95 at all. You may want to go and have them reinstall the blue cruise, since it appears that it is for sure not working correctly.

 

[HDer]

I have had the Blue cruise installed about 3weeks ago now, and in the Washington DC area up to New Jersey, I have not had any problem on Interstate 95 at all. You may want to go and have them reinstall the blue cruise, since it appears that it is for sure not working correctly.

Does it stay in this mode (blue background, hands free) the whole time?

On the highways around me, it switches to this mode (with the blue bubble around the car) quite often, which is the Lane Keep Assist/hands on mode. Sorry for the blurry picture.

Somewhat confusingly, once the car has the BlueCruise upgrade, both are called BlueCruise, although clearly the bottom one requires you to keep your hand on the steering wheel whereas the top one is "true" hands free BlueCruise.

 

[voxel]

It definitely ping-pongs but still stays within the lane. I still prefer it over Tesla Autopilot which disengages too often where I am AND I like being hands free on long sections of highway.

Overall, I'm liking the Kia HDA system on the Telluride best. It has the best Lane Keep Assist of any SUV I've driven or owned and the HDA system is hands-free for a few minutes.

Tesla FSD is a completely different system that works on local city roads (sort of). It has Summon, Auto-park, ping on red/green light change, auto lane change, etc. Most of the stuff I don't care about

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