ACC and Lane Centering: BlueCruise vs Nissan ProPilot

[alex-mache]

Hello!

Has anyone had a chance to compare the two? Obviously, ProPilot is not hands-free, but I'm curious specifically about the ACC and Lane Centering compare on the two systems. My experience from Leaf so far:

• Stock ACC is okay, but not perfect:
  • when approaching a stationary vehicle, it might miss it altogether - depending on the ego speed
  • does not try to "predict" the lead car's motion. For example, if we are close, and the lead car is accelerating, it should still be accelerating some (as opposed to waiting for when the distance exceeds the threshold, then accelerating). So I end up accelerating over ACC sometimes.
  • does not seem to be paying attention to break lights of the lead car. So I end up braking over ACC sometimes.
• Stock lane centering is okay, but not perfect either: the car sometimes wobbles inside the lane, getting uncomfortably close to the traffic in ab adjacent lane.
  • I have tried OpenPilot (but then retured it since it only improved Lane Centering, but not ACC), and that one holds the car almost perfectly centered.

Curious what to expect from Ford

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[mkhuffman]

I don't have BlueCruise but I do have ACC. I think it works great. It anticipates and starts accelerating when moving into the left lane to pass a slower vehicle. It definitely sees stopped traffic and slows as needed to maintain the distance specified. It cannot see the traffic in front of the car immediately in front, but I don't think any automated system can do that.

I can remove my hands from the wheel for 10-15 seconds before the nanny yells at me. It does a great job of keeping the car centered in the lane. Once and a while it will look for the right line and go too far that way, but once it establishes the boundaries, it centers perfectly.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Hello!

Has anyone had a chance to compare the two? Obviously, ProPilot is not hands-free, but I'm curious specifically about the ACC and Lane Centering compare on the two systems. My experience from Leaf so far:

• Stock ACC is okay, but not perfect:
  • when approaching a stationary vehicle, it might miss it altogether - depending on the ego speed
  • does not try to "predict" the lead car's motion. For example, if we are close, and the lead car is accelerating, it should still be accelerating some (as opposed to waiting for when the distance exceeds the threshold, then accelerating). So I end up accelerating over ACC sometimes.
  • does not seem to be paying attention to break lights of the lead car. So I end up braking over ACC sometimes.
• Stock lane centering is okay, but not perfect either: the car sometimes wobbles inside the lane, getting uncomfortably close to the traffic in ab adjacent lane.
  • I have tried OpenPilot (but then retured it since it only improved Lane Centering, but not ACC), and that one holds the car almost perfectly centered.

Curious what to expect from Ford

What you've described for your Leaf experience is fairly similar to the BlueCruise Hands-On experience. The radar of all ACC systems is not good as discerning stopped cars, the BC is not terrible at it. Few ACC systems respond to brake lights. I've not seen an ACC that starts accelerating quickly as the car in front starts up from a stop.

BlueCruise ACC is a bit better than my 2018 Volvo XC60 and probably about as good as Tesla's. Neither are perfect. One nice feature of Ford's ACC is that you can start from a stop using the accelerator as the indicator that you want to quickly follow the previously stopped car in front of you, rather than needing to press a button on the steering wheel (though that option also exists). I like that because that gets me following as closely as I want, at which point I can release the accelerator and let ACC take over.

BlueCruise lane centering is fairly good, though I hear the usual complaints about it wanting to hug the right side of the lane (something that I think is mostly an optical illusion). It can ping-pong a bit, but usually not too much. For long drives the hands-free is kinda wonderful, especially if you want to eat a sandwich! (Not that I would ever do that, mind you! ? )

All these systems are driver-aids, not driver-replacements of course, so it would be a very bad idea to fall asleep at the wheel (putting aside the nanny cam that will eventually slow your car if you do so).

 

[alex-mache]

It anticipates and starts accelerating when moving into the left lane to pass a slower vehicle.

Sounds pretty good!

I like that because that gets me following as closely as I want, at which point I can release the accelerator and let ACC take over.

?

BlueCruise lane centering is fairly good, though I hear the usual complaints about it wanting to hug the right side of the lane (something that I think is mostly an optical illusion).

So for Leaf, I also initially thought it was an illusion.. Then I changed my mind Glad to hear it works well on Ford!

 

[2FlyMache]

I don't have BlueCruise but I do have ACC. I think it works great. It anticipates and starts accelerating when moving into the left lane to pass a slower vehicle. It definitely sees stopped traffic and slows as needed to maintain the distance specified. It cannot see the traffic in front of the car immediately in front, but I don't think any automated system can do that.

I can remove my hands from the wheel for 10-15 seconds before the nanny yells at me. It does a great job of keeping the car centered in the lane. Once and a while it will look for the right line and go too far that way, but once it establishes the boundaries, it centers perfectly.

Exactly. I've found that when I'm ready to initiate cruise that if i get closer to the right side lane marker it will immediately center. If I do it with the car in the middle of the lane, it'll drift to right to get it's reference point and then move back to center. I have BlueCruise as well but don't get to use it very often but when I have, I've been extremely impressed with it. We just need more BC roads

 

[awp0]

I think the ACC piece of BC is quite good and feels refined.

I think the lane centering piece is pretty good most of the time, but falls short some of the time. Ping-ponging was quite bad for the first week or two of ownership for me, but has improved since then. It still tends to ping-pong on occasion, and sometimes it's bad enough that I have to turn it off.

I absolutely hate the "swing right to get the reference point" behavior when you enable BC, and I'm one of the people who feels that BC is indeed a bit uncomfortably off-center to the right in general. Many people feel this way. Maybe it's an optical illusion, I don't know how to measure it, but the result is that I'm somewhat nervous passing cars and I don't think this is the intent of BC. Hopefully they can improve this behavior.

I love the eye-nanny hands-free technology. For me this works perfectly. It nags me when it should, and otherwise BC only disengages based on external/map conditions. It even knows the difference between me staring at the cluster (where I get a message on screen without an audible alarm) versus anything else (audible alarm and message).

One last comment: a few of us in the forum are finding that hands-free disappears for hours at a time (entire long drives, or an entire day). It's very frustrating when it happens. It's not based on dirty cameras or road conditions or anything temporary like that, it's not solved by an infotainment reset, and it resolves itself after a day or two. It seems like a module is erroring out on startup, or maybe a connection to a server is failing (for licensing/etc). Frustrating for a feature that we paid money for.

 

[AZBill]

I do not really feel the BC is off center one way or another. I have only found two cases where it does the ping-ponging in the lanes. If there is a strong cross wind it definitely will fight that with a ping-pong at a high frequency. It also ping pongs at a low frequency when the curves are sharp on the interstate. Sometimes it definitely shuts off before sharper curves on the interstate, I think this is something Ford needs to work on, I think they know the system does not handle those sharper curves. I also still see it drop LCC at some on or off ramps and that is annoying.

The only times I have seen it drop BC totally, is when the GPS signal is lost, and each time I have been able to correct that with a Sync reset.

 

[Logal727]

BC is the best system I’ve used for lane keeping and hands-free

 

[mkhuffman]

I think the ACC piece of BC is quite good and feels refined.

I think the lane centering piece is pretty good most of the time, but falls short some of the time. Ping-ponging was quite bad for the first week or two of ownership for me, but has improved since then. It still tends to ping-pong on occasion, and sometimes it's bad enough that I have to turn it off.

I absolutely hate the "swing right to get the reference point" behavior when you enable BC, and I'm one of the people who feels that BC is indeed a bit uncomfortably off-center to the right in general. Many people feel this way. Maybe it's an optical illusion, I don't know how to measure it, but the result is that I'm somewhat nervous passing cars and I don't think this is the intent of BC. Hopefully they can improve this behavior.

I love the eye-nanny hands-free technology. For me this works perfectly. It nags me when it should, and otherwise BC only disengages based on external/map conditions. It even knows the difference between me staring at the cluster (where I get a message on screen without an audible alarm) versus anything else (audible alarm and message).

One last comment: a few of us in the forum are finding that hands-free disappears for hours at a time (entire long drives, or an entire day). It's very frustrating when it happens. It's not based on dirty cameras or road conditions or anything temporary like that, it's not solved by an infotainment reset, and it resolves itself after a day or two. It seems like a module is erroring out on startup, or maybe a connection to a server is failing (for licensing/etc). Frustrating for a feature that we paid money for.

It is possible you need some software module updates. I think the ping pong action has been improved. I dont notice it with ACC anyway.

 

[awp0]

It is possible you need some software module updates. I think the ping pong action has been improved. I dont notice it with ACC anyway.

Yeah, it's possible. The car was driven off the lot brand new in July, so hopefully they're not that far out of date. I plan to ask the dealer to review the modules and updates next time I have a reason for a visit (hopefully not until 10k!).

 

[Ming]

ping-pong seems to be much less nowadays than months ago. but still happens, way more than Tesla, which almost locked dead center in lane.

I started liking handsfree more, as I can stretch and rest hands better. I also like that you can make adjustment on steering and don't lose BC. with my Tesla, it's really locked onto the path it stays, if you make adjustment, autopilot gets disengaged and you have to turn on again.

in all cars with ACC I've driven, they all slow down the car too late when you drive at highway and there's stopped traffic ahead.

 

[alex-mache]

It still tends to ping-pong on occasion, and sometimes it's bad enough that I have to turn it off.

<...>

One last comment: a few of us in the forum are finding that hands-free disappears for hours at a time (entire long drives, or an entire day).

Both of these are pretty sad. Well. Can only hope those can be fixed in software.

 

[Rick65]

ping-pong seems to be much less nowadays than months ago. but still happens, way more than Tesla, which almost locked dead center in lane.

I started liking handsfree more, as I can stretch and rest hands better. I also like that you can make adjustment on steering and don't lose BC. with my Tesla, it's really locked onto the path it stays, if you make adjustment, autopilot gets disengaged and you have to turn on again.

in all cars with ACC I've driven, they all slow down the car too late when you drive at highway and there's stopped traffic ahead.

Agree on the slow down and speed up with BC... ACC/BC should detect that is in stop and go traffic and use a different acceleration/deceleration curve to maintain the gap. when you are going at high speed and there is traffic ahead, I apply the brakes early or disengage BC/ACC as I don't trust the car will stop in time.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Agree on the slow down and speed up with BC... ACC/BC should detect that is in stop and go traffic and use a different acceleration/deceleration curve to maintain the gap. when you are going at high speed and there is traffic ahead, I apply the brakes early or disengage BC/ACC as I don't trust the car will stop in time.

The point is to drive with a buffer, and absorb that buffer when traffic ahead slows down. This smooths out the stopping process and prevents you from getting rear ended if the car in front of you abruptly stops. It does get pretty aggressive when you get closer than 25'. It will stop in time unless the car ahead is doing a panic stop, you'll probably get a collision alert and should always manually brake for those.

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