First and Last Time BlueCruise User…..at least for a while.

[Doobster6]

Just got back from a 110 mile round trip on the PA Turnpike. Used BC the entire time. I give it a B- overall.
- straight line performance is naturally A+
- A little nervous in long sweeping turns; definitely not as smooth as a human, but not bad. B
- Sometimes gets ‘scared’ when road surface changes, say old switching to new blacktop. Started to decelerate significantly for no reason in medium dense traffic. C-
- Gets confused when lane lines disappear, such as happens with exit and on-ramps. Swerves to the right trying to find the new ‘center’ of the suddenly wider road then quickly swerves back. D
- Lane changes initiated by turn signal, A

I felt I had to rest my hands/fingertips either very near, or on, the steering wheel at all times. I let the car steer itself 99.9% of the time but did need to intervene a dozen times along the trip. I know, that’s really pretty good over 110 miles, but I also had to ‘supervise’ the system 99.999% of the time to be sure I could intervene when necessary. I don’t think I would find this any less stressful than simply driving the car, or just using it in adaptive cruise control mode only. This system, along with Tesla’s variations, are very impressive achievements, but have a LONG WAY to go before they can operate unsupervised, which is when I would finally find these systems valuable. Anyway, my 90-day subscription expires in two days and I won’t be renewing it. If it were free I would use it because ‘it’s there’ so why not, but it didn’t enhance my driving experience anywhere near enough to justify paying $50/month or $500/yr.

Ford, I will happily evaluate future revisions for a few weeks at a time if you’d like, so you can gage your progress against a known baseline (me). But it doesn’t deliver enough benefit as is, at least not for this otherwise very happy Mach-E customer!

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[Mach-Lee]

When you use the system enough, you learn its habits and are able to predict when it will start doing sketchy stuff. For example, whenever I see the lines get bad or disappear, my hand automatically goes on the wheel.

I agree the behavior near on ramps and off ramps is not good enough yet, and has long been one of my biggest critiques.

On a long trip, it does reduce driver fatigue quite a bit.

 

[tbrumleve]

My state requires a dotted line at off ramps, so I don’t experience BC trying to exit the freeway unintentionally. Driving in the next state over I do get the pull in both my Mach e and my Honda Pilot. So, not auto maker specific issue and it can be corrected with a little road paint.

 

[phil]

I don’t think I would find this any less stressful than simply driving the car...

I agree. It is more work and stress for me to properly supervise BlueCruise than to just drive the car myself.

Someday, it will be great. But for now, my opinion is that BlueCruise is impressive, but worthless.

 

[Jimrpa]

I’ve found on my long road trips that I was significantly less fatigued at the end of the day.

 

[AliRafiee]

I agree that it has some shortcomings. They have been improving it, and it’s coming along.
But at the same time I love it and use it everytime I’m on the highway.
As Lee already mentioned, it has quirks and I’ve gotten used to them.
But I’m looking forward to 1.5.

 

[Doobster6]

Think about it……..you the driver have to ALWAYS supervise that your BlueCruise-activated (or FSD) car isn’t doing anything wrong; how is that so different than supervising your self for the same reason?…….and these systems claim to reduce driver fatigue and stress??…..I don’t see how. And the car manufacturers know that your supervisory role is SO important to catching their software errors in real time that they make the car actually supervise YOU, supervising IT!…..else it shuts down the program. Products so obviously error-prone as these systems are ought to be offered to users free of charge, until they attain the necessary level of proficiency that makes them worth paying for. After all, we are performing their beta-testing for them, for free, aren’t we??…..and they want us to have to also pay them to do it?
To each their own of course, but that’s how I’m seeing it.

 

[Mach1E]

Think about it……..you the driver have to ALWAYS supervise that your BlueCruise-activated (or FSD) car isn’t doing anything wrong;

Yes!

That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work!

Lvl 2 autonomous driving (every system out there including Tesla) works this way.

It’s intelligent cruise control plus lane keep assist.

The “hands free” function adds an eye monitor to make sure the driver is monitoring things!

Personally I use BC hands on. It’s safer anyways. Driver should always be ready to take control.

This is no different than how you have likely used cruise control on your previous cars for decades.

The confusion likely comes from Tesla advertising things as “full self driving.” These systems aren’t “full” and were never “self driving.” They are just driver “assist” features.

Once you realize what they are and what they do, you know better how to use them.

Example- if you see traffic slowing ahead, don’t wait to see if your car will brake at the last minute, take control just like you would with cruise control.

See a car weaving in and out of traffic behind you and you KNOW they’re about to cut you off? Take control.

See construction lines ahead? Take control…. Etc.

 

[Tampamike]

Think about it……..you the driver have to ALWAYS supervise that your BlueCruise-activated (or FSD) car isn’t doing anything wrong; how is that so different than supervising your self for the same reason?…….and these systems claim to reduce driver fatigue and stress??…..I don’t see how. And the car manufacturers know that your supervisory role is SO important to catching their software errors in real time that they make the car actually supervise YOU, supervising IT!…..else it shuts down the program. Products so obviously error-prone as these systems are ought to be offered to users free of charge, until they attain the necessary level of proficiency that makes them worth paying for. After all, we are performing their beta-testing for them, for free, aren’t we??…..and they want us to have to also pay them to do it?
To each their own of course, but that’s how I’m seeing it.

Makes my arm less tired. Yeah, I‘m supervising (have to or it yells at you) but I’m not actually, physically steering the car most of the time. I can also do things like eat a sandwich with two hands and not drip mayonnaise on my lap (well, most of the time).
I love it and use it whenever I’m on the road, hands-on or hands-free. Hope they keep improving it since I’m still on version 1.0.

 

[VaporTrails]

Just got back from a 110 mile round trip on the PA Turnpike. Used BC the entire time. I give it a B- overall.
- straight line performance is naturally A+
- A little nervous in long sweeping turns; definitely not as smooth as a human, but not bad. B
- Sometimes gets ‘scared’ when road surface changes, say old switching to new blacktop. Started to decelerate significantly for no reason in medium dense traffic. C-
- Gets confused when lane lines disappear, such as happens with exit and on-ramps. Swerves to the right trying to find the new ‘center’ of the suddenly wider road then quickly swerves back. D
- Lane changes initiated by turn signal, A

I felt I had to rest my hands/fingertips either very near, or on, the steering wheel at all times. I let the car steer itself 99.9% of the time but did need to intervene a dozen times along the trip. I know, that’s really pretty good over 110 miles, but I also had to ‘supervise’ the system 99.999% of the time to be sure I could intervene when necessary. I don’t think I would find this any less stressful than simply driving the car, or just using it in adaptive cruise control mode only. This system, along with Tesla’s variations, are very impressive achievements, but have a LONG WAY to go before they can operate unsupervised, which is when I would finally find these systems valuable. Anyway, my 90-day subscription expires in two days and I won’t be renewing it. If it were free I would use it because ‘it’s there’ so why not, but it didn’t enhance my driving experience anywhere near enough to justify paying $50/month or $500/yr.

Ford, I will happily evaluate future revisions for a few weeks at a time if you’d like, so you can gage your progress against a known baseline (me). But it doesn’t deliver enough benefit as is, at least not for this otherwise very happy Mach-E customer!

Just got through over 18 hours of driving, 17 of which was done by BC 1.3. I like some of its choices, but sometimes I want the car positioned in a different place for an upcoming pass. The thing with Fords BC implementation is that you still control the car fully. If you give it throttle input because you want the car to smoothly merge, it will stay in BC up to 82mph. If you grab the wheel, it immediately moves the car and BC decides if that input is enough that it needs to hand the car back to you. I equate it to being the captain of a ship and the intern is driving. The intern is qualified, but not experienced.

 

[AEGinMD]

Yes!

That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work!

Lvl 2 autonomous driving (every system out there including Tesla) works this way.

It’s intelligent cruise control plus lane keep assist.

The “hands free” function adds an eye monitor to make sure the driver is monitoring things!

Personally I use BC hands on. It’s safer anyways. Driver should always be ready to take control.

This is no different than how you have likely used cruise control on your previous cars for decades.

The confusion likely comes from Tesla advertising things as “full self driving.” These systems aren’t “full” and were never “self driving.” They are just driver “assist” features.

Once you realize what they are and what they do, you know better how to use them.

Example- if you see traffic slowing ahead, don’t wait to see if your car will brake at the last minute, take control just like you would with cruise control.

See a car weaving in and out of traffic behind you and you KNOW they’re about to cut you off? Take control.

See construction lines ahead? Take control…. Etc.

It is NO DIFFERENT... to YOU. It is VERY DIFFERENT to me and several others who posted. The stress of monitoring BC (or hands free, for that matter) & taking control back as necessary is significantly more draining -- and less fun-- to this poster than just driving this beautiful car.

 

[stevenschwartz]

One minor suggestion is to turn off automatic speed control. That helps greatly with the unexpected acceleration/deceleration. FYI, my wife HATES when I use it when she is in the car. Only slightly longer trips we take are Tucson to Phoenix, about 120 miles, and I find I am significantly less fatigued when I use BC.

 

[BatteriesIncluded]

+1 on turning off the predictive speed assist — it prevents one of the most annoying behaviors — the unpredictable rapid slowing down of BC. I believe the auto reading of speed signs are the problem and It can be turned off by turning off predictive speed assist. I’m not always sure why the speed reduces but I suspect it is road construction temporary speed changes or possible truck speed limit. I get the car should obey road construction speed limits but if this is what it trigging it then the slow down can be dramatic. Going from 75 to 55 rapidly is shocking to both me and the car behind me. I expect the brakes lights come on as well.

The downside of turning off the predictive speed assist is it also turns off predictive curve speed reduction.

 

[RKinWA]

When you use the system enough, you learn its habits and are able to predict when it will start doing sketchy stuff. For example, whenever I see the lines get bad or disappear, my hand automatically goes on the wheel.

I agree the behavior near on ramps and off ramps is not good enough yet, and has long been one of my biggest critiques.

On a long trip, it does reduce driver fatigue quite a bit.

I totally agree. I just finished a 4200 mile road trip (in a Lincoln) and used BC for as much as I could, it was always SUCH a relieve when it was available and I could sit back and relax ? I also agree you learn the system and get ready to take over.

 

[tedjordan]

When you use the system enough, you learn its habits and are able to predict when it will start doing sketchy stuff. For example, whenever I see the lines get bad or disappear, my hand automatically goes on the wheel.

I agree the behavior near on ramps and off ramps is not good enough yet, and has long been one of my biggest critiques.

On a long trip, it does reduce driver fatigue quite a bit.

This is so true. I drive from Detroit to Milwaukee about every two weeks, and am so happy to have the BC feature; I could live without it otherwise. A 6 hour trip feels like 1 hour.

It really shows its shine in bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic when I'm in Chicago mostly. BC stops automatically, and then starts automatically. It's actually safer. At 5 - 10 MPH I can glance to the side to see if another lane is faster so I can change lanes. If I turn my head at the wrong time, the car will stop for me if the car in front of me stops. IT'S WONDERFUL!! Saved me from so many accidents.

It was scary the first time. I wasn't sure BC was going to stop. But it did! (manuals are for the weak ? JK)... I just need to adjust my maximum speed because it tends to want to get to that speed as quickly as possible, so I might lower it to 25 MPH depending....maybe 40 ... just depends on how slowly traffic is moving on the freeway.

After all clear I reset my maximum speed "back to the speed limit" ? BC isn't perfect, but it's worth it to me for these long trips. I schedule all my phone calls for the long drives. Works great.

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