BlueCruise 1.0 vs AutoPilot

[ShaggySS]

I am a Mach-E owner with over 34K miles and new Model Y part owner (wife's car). We took a trip to Southern California so I was able to test out AutoPilot and wanted to compare it to BlueCruise. I always use BlueCurise on the freeway and am pretty happy with the standard 1.0 system at its prior price point. Both systems have pros and cons. While I am more familiar with Blue Cruise having used it so much I was impressed with how autopilot functioned in several areas but also lacking in some basics.

Cost:
Ford Blue Cruise 1.0 - $800 per year
Tesla AutoPilot - Included in the price of the car

Hands Free:
BlueCruise wins easily by allowing the driver to remove their hands from the steering wheel while enabled. AutoPilot requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel and apply limited force to register your hands. Too much force and it will disengage which I found very frustrating. Blue Cruise allows the driver to manually steer the car which I do if the car next to me is on the line. If you attempt this with autopilot it disengages the system which also disengages adaptive cruise control so the regen on the brakes slows you down quickly. Most of my trip was straight so I didn't get a lot of testing with sharper turns but AutoPllot did fine maintaining the lane on turns I know BlueCruise would disengage for.

Traffic:
AutoPilot does a great job looking further ahead and slowing down gently if traffic is slowing. BlueCruise doesn't seem to see as far ahead and therefore slams on the brakes very late. My daily commute takes me past a place where traffic ALWAYS is going 70MPH to a stop and I disable the system before coming up on that and once I am in traffic I will turn it back on. I found myself doing this with AutoPilot a few times because I am so used to not trusting the car to do it smoothly but when I did autopilot did a great job. AutoPilot is slow to return back to the set speed. If someone in front of you moves out of the way AutoPilot will very very slowly return to speed whereas bluecruise will GO! This works well in BlueCruise most of the time except in heavy stop and go traffic. AutoPilot will more naturally speed up and slow down whereas BlueCurise is a bit jerky. My wife pointed out that I can push the go pedal to make autopilot speed up more quickly which was necessary at times to not piss off the people behind me.

Max Speed:
BlueCruise 81 MPH
AutoPilot 85 MPH
Overall 81MPH is plenty, but on I5 the traffic moves at a much faster pace so the 85 was a nice bonus. I did get put on autopilot time-out when I had it enabled and used the go pedal to exceed 85MPH, got this error "Autosteer unavailable for the rest of this drive Auto Steer speed limit exceeded" was the error and rebooting, and canceling the route both wouldn't let me out of timeout. My wife was very assumed by the lengths I went to try to trick the system. After we charged I was taken off time out.

Enabling Feature:
BlueCruise requires you push two different buttons to enable the system and for many, it took some playing around with to do it right. Now its easy but for new owners it a bit tricky to know the system is enabled
AutoPilot a single push down on the steering wheel stalk which plays displays a message on the screen and also makes a distinct noise when enabled.

Lane Changing:
Auto Pilot disengages when you change lanes and requires you reengage to resume when in the lane which was annoying and the sound was also annoying after a while even in Joe Mode (quieter)
Blue Cruise will resume when you change lanes which is very nice and soon when 1.3 comes out will change lanes for you I have heard.

Phantom Braking:
Blue Cruise has never randomly braked for no reason in my experience
AutoPilot does but its not as bad as I imagined and I got pretty good at detecting when it was going to. The main cause of the car to randomly brake was a big rig getting too close to the line the car would just slow as if it expected it to come into my lane. A few times it braked a tad harder but nothing awful. I did experience a few random times it would slow for no reason but nothing abrupt during my 700 mile trip.

Like I said both systems have pros and cons but I was very happy to get back into my car and enjoy hands free BlueCruise.

Sponsored

 

[MacherAWD]

I am a Mach-E owner with over 34K miles and new Model Y part owner (wife's car). We took a trip to Southern California so I was able to test out AutoPilot and wanted to compare it to BlueCruise. I always use BlueCurise on the freeway and am pretty happy with the standard 1.0 system at its prior price point. Both systems have pros and cons. While I am more familiar with Blue Cruise having used it so much I was impressed with how autopilot functioned in several areas but also lacking in some basics.

Cost:
Ford Blue Cruise 1.0 - $800 per year
Tesla AutoPilot - Included in the price of the car

Hands Free:
BlueCruise wins easily by allowing the driver to remove their hands from the steering wheel while enabled. AutoPilot requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel and apply limited force to register your hands. Too much force and it will disengage which I found very frustrating. Blue Cruise allows the driver to manually steer the car which I do if the car next to me is on the line. If you attempt this with autopilot it disengages the system which also disengages adaptive cruise control so the regen on the brakes slows you down quickly. Most of my trip was straight so I didn't get a lot of testing with sharper turns but AutoPllot did fine maintaining the lane on turns I know BlueCruise would disengage for.

Traffic:
AutoPilot does a great job looking further ahead and slowing down gently if traffic is slowing. BlueCruise doesn't seem to see as far ahead and therefore slams on the brakes very late. My daily commute takes me past a place where traffic ALWAYS is going 70MPH to a stop and I disable the system before coming up on that and once I am in traffic I will turn it back on. I found myself doing this with AutoPilot a few times because I am so used to not trusting the car to do it smoothly but when I did autopilot did a great job. AutoPilot is slow to return back to the set speed. If someone in front of you moves out of the way AutoPilot will very very slowly return to speed whereas bluecruise will GO! This works well in BlueCruise most of the time except in heavy stop and go traffic. AutoPilot will more naturally speed up and slow down whereas BlueCurise is a bit jerky. My wife pointed out that I can push the go pedal to make autopilot speed up more quickly which was necessary at times to not piss off the people behind me.

Max Speed:
BlueCruise 81 MPH
AutoPilot 85 MPH
Overall 81MPH is plenty, but on I5 the traffic moves at a much faster pace so the 85 was a nice bonus. I did get put on autopilot time-out when I had it enabled and used the go pedal to exceed 85MPH, got this error "Autosteer unavailable for the rest of this drive Auto Steer speed limit exceeded" was the error and rebooting, and canceling the route both wouldn't let me out of timeout. My wife was very assumed by the lengths I went to try to trick the system. After we charged I was taken off time out.

Enabling Feature:
BlueCruise requires you push two different buttons to enable the system and for many, it took some playing around with to do it right. Now its easy but for new owners it a bit tricky to know the system is enabled
AutoPilot a single push down on the steering wheel stalk which plays displays a message on the screen and also makes a distinct noise when enabled.

Lane Changing:
Auto Pilot disengages when you change lanes and requires you reengage to resume when in the lane which was annoying and the sound was also annoying after a while even in Joe Mode (quieter)
Blue Cruise will resume when you change lanes which is very nice and soon when 1.3 comes out will change lanes for you I have heard.

Phantom Braking:
Blue Cruise has never randomly braked for no reason in my experience
AutoPilot does but its not as bad as I imagined and I got pretty good at detecting when it was going to. The main cause of the car to randomly brake was a big rig getting too close to the line the car would just slow as if it expected it to come into my lane. A few times it braked a tad harder but nothing awful. I did experience a few random times it would slow for no reason but nothing abrupt during my 700 mile trip.

Like I said both systems have pros and cons but I was very happy to get back into my car and enjoy hands free BlueCruise.

One note, on enabling it has only ever been 1 button for me, far left on the steering wheel and you are a go. Or do you mean when you first configure the system?

 

[ShaggySS]

One note, on enabling it has only ever been 1 button for me, far left on the steering wheel and you are a go. Or do you mean when you first configure the system?

To enable bluecruise you must enable lane centering and the adaptive cruise control. If you always leave lane centering on then its just a single button but I am strange and disable it to get the cooler graphics when I am not in bluecruise.

 

[macchiaz-o]

Nice write up, @ShaggySS.

I, too, disable lane keeping except while on the highway.

I find the Mach-E adaptive cruise slows down much more gracefully as follow distance increases. Whisper mode feels better here, too. I usually use follow distance 3, but will change to 1 or 2 in busier traffic. If traffic is particularly erratic, I definitely turn off cruise control.

 

[ShaggySS]

Nice write up, @ShaggySS.

I, too, disable lane keeping except while on the highway.

I find the Mach-E adaptive cruise slows down much more gracefully as follow distance increases. Whisper mode feels better here, too. I usually use follow distance 3, but will change to 1 or 2 in busier traffic. If traffic is particularly erratic, I definitely turn off cruise control.

Thanks!

I read about that the other day and started putting it in whisper mode on my commute home. It really does help. I also will adjust the follow distance which reminds me....
BlueCruise does this much better. To see the current follow distance state requires a single push and a second push to adjust. AutoPilot there is no way to see where it is currently at without adjusting it + or - a car length which isn't a big deal but I like BlueCruise's programming better.

 

[SFC]

Lane Changing:
Auto Pilot disengages when you change lanes and requires you reengage to resume when in the lane which was annoying and the sound was also annoying after a while even in Joe Mode (quieter)
Blue Cruise will resume when you change lanes which is very nice and soon when 1.3 comes out will change lanes for you I have heard.

Phantom Braking:
Blue Cruise has never randomly braked for no reason in my experience
AutoPilot does but its not as bad as I imagined and I got pretty good at detecting when it was going to. The main cause of the car to randomly brake was a big rig getting too close to the line the car would just slow as if it expected it to come into my lane. A few times it braked a tad harder but nothing awful. I did experience a few random times it would slow for no reason but nothing abrupt during my 700 mile trip.

Like I said both systems have pros and cons but I was very happy to get back into my car and enjoy hands free BlueCruise.

RE: Lane Changing:
Autopilot should automatically change lanes for you if you put on your blinker and it sees an open spot. It's kind of slow to move but if you give it 10 seconds it should make the move.

I can't wait to see how Ford's works - the video make it seem pretty seamless.

Phantom Braking:
You're lucky, it's a LOT worse than that. I was doing 70mph down a rural 4-lane and had it phantom brake 3 different times due to tree shadows across the road. Scared the crap out of me to the point I refuse to even use it on that road anymore - if anyone would have been behind me it would've been a BAAAD accident.

Mach-E has NEVER had an issue on the same road/same stretch. Tesla's "vision is all we need" is a joke.

 

[ShaggySS]

RE: Lane Changing:
Autopilot should automatically change lanes for you if you put on your blinker and it sees an open spot. It's kind of slow to move but if you give it 10 seconds it should make the move.

No shit?!?! I gotta go try this. Thanks for the info.

 

[Mirak]

Interesting comparison. Seems like BC is the clear winner except for price (which I can virtually guarantee you won’t end up sticking - it’s a marketing gimmick).

 

[Runningslow]

Traffic:
AutoPilot does a great job looking further ahead and slowing down gently if traffic is slowing. BlueCruise doesn't seem to see as far ahead and therefore slams on the brakes very late. My daily commute takes me past a place where traffic ALWAYS is going 70MPH to a stop and I disable the system before coming up on that and once I am in traffic I will turn it back on. I found myself doing this with AutoPilot a few times because I am so used to not trusting the car to do it smoothly but when I did autopilot did a great job. AutoPilot is slow to return back to the set speed. If someone in front of you moves out of the way AutoPilot will very very slowly return to speed whereas bluecruise will GO! This works well in BlueCruise most of the time except in heavy stop and go traffic. AutoPilot will more naturally speed up and slow down whereas BlueCurise is a bit jerky. My wife pointed out that I can push the go pedal to make autopilot speed up more quickly which was necessary at times to not piss off the people behind me.

Based on feedback from other members in this forum, give whisper mode a try when you're in traffic. I honestly rolled my eyes when I saw comments about this, then I tried it myself. There is a huge difference in braking in stop and go traffic w/ BlueCruise between Unbridled and Whisper driving modes. If you have your following distance set to one mark, you're never going to avoid the rough braking when someone enters your lane 10ft in front of you, but it does smooth the braking as traffic slows.

Sponsored