Adaptive Cruise Control Feedback

Anton

Well-Known Member
First Name
Anton
Joined
Jan 10, 2022
Threads
14
Messages
233
Reaction score
184
Location
Fresno, CA
Vehicles
2021 Mach-E AWD ER
Occupation
MedTech Software Engineer.
Country flag
Hello all. As I'm learning my vehicle I have some concerns regarding the car behavior when Adaptive Cruise Control + Lane Keeping are turned on (not Blue Cruise active). Let me know if what I am experiencing is common and is expected, or if this will most likely be fixed with future OTA updates.

1. Adaptive Cruise Control feels late in recognizing a stopped vehicle in front of you. For example, I'm approaching a red light with a completely stopped vehicle. I start to get uncomfortable as the Mach-E continues marching forward without slowing down. Only once out of the 4-5 times that I was able to test this did I not have to intervene and the car started slowing down "safely".

2. Adaptive Cruise Control hugs center when it could be hugging left/right side depending on the situation. Should hug left when you're the left-most lane of a divided highway and should hug right when there's one lane in each direction on a non-divided freeway. This is a potential improvement that would probably be a manually added feature (not learned machine learning applied through driver data).

3. There's a section of the road where the ACC decides to swing into an approaching left turning lane of a 2-lane freeway. I suspect this will be improved with more driver data collected by Ford. Frankly, I'm surprised that this issue exists. Shows the adolescence of the Ford driver assistance software.

Overall, I'm pleased with the current state and looking forward to future improvements.
Sponsored

 

RickMachE

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 1, 2021
Threads
200
Messages
13,135
Reaction score
17,856
Location
SE MI
Vehicles
2022 Mach-E Premium 4X, 2022 Lightning Lariat
Country flag
There are sensitivity levels. 4 bars down to 1 bar. It's in the manual.
 

SnBGC

Well-Known Member
First Name
Greg
Joined
Apr 20, 2020
Threads
46
Messages
5,955
Reaction score
9,749
Location
Phoenix
Vehicles
2021 Mach-E FE, 2021 Wrangler 4xe High Altitude
Occupation
Manager
Country flag
I have the same experience as you when approaching traffic that is completely stopped ahead. I don't know how far ahead the car sees, but it doesn't appear to see brake lights ahead and just keeps on going. It will run red lights too. I think the stop and go feature only works when moving with other traffic. So following another car that is slowing down and it will slow down to match.
The lane centering thing will learn where you like it. Drive down the center or off to one side and then the car will try and hold that relative position.
 
OP
OP
Anton

Anton

Well-Known Member
First Name
Anton
Joined
Jan 10, 2022
Threads
14
Messages
233
Reaction score
184
Location
Fresno, CA
Vehicles
2021 Mach-E AWD ER
Occupation
MedTech Software Engineer.
Country flag
There are sensitivity levels. 4 bars down to 1 bar. It's in the manual.
I always have it set at 4 bars.

And I appreciate the reminder of the manual again. Sometimes I forget that it exists...
 

phidauex

Well-Known Member
First Name
Sam
Joined
Dec 8, 2020
Threads
15
Messages
840
Reaction score
1,545
Location
Colorado
Vehicles
2021 MachE 4EX, 2006 Prius, 1997 Tacoma
Occupation
Renewable Energy Engineer
Country flag
Hello all. As I'm learning my vehicle I have some concerns regarding the car behavior when Adaptive Cruise Control + Lane Keeping are turned on (not Blue Cruise active). Let me know if what I am experiencing is common and is expected, or if this will most likely be fixed with future OTA updates.

1. Adaptive Cruise Control feels late in recognizing a stopped vehicle in front of you. For example, I'm approaching a red light with a completely stopped vehicle. I start to get uncomfortable as the Mach-E continues marching forward without slowing down. Only once out of the 4-5 times that I was able to test this did I not have to intervene and the car started slowing down "safely".

2. Adaptive Cruise Control hugs center when it could be hugging left/right side depending on the situation. Should hug left when you're the left-most lane of a divided highway and should hug right when there's one lane in each direction on a non-divided freeway. This is a potential improvement that would probably be a manually added feature (not learned machine learning applied through driver data).

3. There's a section of the road where the ACC decides to swing into an approaching left turning lane of a 2-lane freeway. I suspect this will be improved with more driver data collected by Ford. Frankly, I'm surprised that this issue exists. Shows the adolescence of the Ford driver assistance software.

Overall, I'm pleased with the current state and looking forward to future improvements.
Hi, like all semi-automatic systems it does take a little getting used to. I’ve been driving mine for 6 months, and here are a few thoughts.

1. Stopping - It does come to a complete stop if cars ahead of you are fully stopped. If they start up again quickly, it will start itself (and display the text “auto-resume”). If they stay stopped for a bit it will change the text to “stopped“ and require you to bump the acellerator to get going again.

There is a 65mph road with several stop lights that I drive regularly and if the light is red and some cars are stopped it does work correctly. That said, it reacts a bit later than I would react as a person, so it feels like I need to take over, but I have tested it a number of times and it always stops on its own, at the right distance, even if it does so a half a beat later than I would. So you can stop manually if you’d like, but I don’t think you’d get in an accident if you just let it do its thing.

Setting the “distance” bars will make this more gradual, as well as your driving mode. So 1 bar on Unbridled would be quite harrowingly close, and 4 bars on Whisper the most gradual. I usually drive on Engage with 2 bars of distance.

2. Hugging center - I don’t think it can tell which lane it is in right now. However, if you “nudge” it to one side or the other, it will tend to hold your preference, rather than pull you back to the middle.

3. I haven’t had any cases where it swings into a turn lane or off-ramp, but it probably depends on the lane geometry and how it is painted. Hopefully this improves over time.
 


OP
OP
Anton

Anton

Well-Known Member
First Name
Anton
Joined
Jan 10, 2022
Threads
14
Messages
233
Reaction score
184
Location
Fresno, CA
Vehicles
2021 Mach-E AWD ER
Occupation
MedTech Software Engineer.
Country flag
The lane centering thing will learn where you like it. Drive down the center or off to one side and then the car will try and hold that relative position.
Hmmm... Is this documented somewhere by Ford?
And does this happen only in real-time? As in, as I'm actively fighting the lane centering to hold to one side it should then start trying to maintain what I'm telling it to do? Is there any long-term learning in this?
 

Neil4Real

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2021
Threads
15
Messages
3,223
Reaction score
2,920
Location
Southern California
Vehicles
Mach-E GT Performance Edition - Shadow Black
Country flag
I have the same experience as you when approaching traffic that is completely stopped ahead. I don't know how far ahead the car sees, but it doesn't appear to see brake lights ahead and just keeps on going. It will run red lights too. I think the stop and go feature only works when moving with other traffic. So following another car that is slowing down and it will slow down to match.
The lane centering thing will learn where you like it. Drive down the center or off to one side and then the car will try and hold that relative position.
It most certainly does not read stop lights or brake lights. It can only stop at a red light if there is another stopped car already there, if you’re first, you have to manually brake.
 

Neil4Real

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2021
Threads
15
Messages
3,223
Reaction score
2,920
Location
Southern California
Vehicles
Mach-E GT Performance Edition - Shadow Black
Country flag
Hmmm... Is this documented somewhere by Ford?
And does this happen only in real-time? As in, as I'm actively fighting the lane centering to hold to one side it should then start trying to maintain what I'm telling it to do? Is there any long-term learning in this?
I’m curious on this too. I’ve seen it posted a few times now and my car certainly doesn’t remember. The farthest left lanes have the line bump things to the right of the lines rather than the middle on the highway. When I’m in that lane, my car seems to always ride the bumps, I try and correct and it just drifts back and then constantly shuts off indicating on the IPC that it can’t see the left lane.
 

srogers

Well-Known Member
First Name
Steve
Joined
Dec 27, 2019
Threads
10
Messages
151
Reaction score
198
Location
San Francisco Bay Area
Vehicles
Mustang, Mach E, Premium, 2021
Country flag
Hmmm... Is this documented somewhere by Ford?
And does this happen only in real-time? As in, as I'm actively fighting the lane centering to hold to one side it should then start trying to maintain what I'm telling it to do? Is there any long-term learning in this?
Here is a quote from the Owner’s Manual explaining how lane centering works:

HOW DOES LANE CENTERING WORK

Adaptive cruise control with lane centering uses radar and camera sensors to help keep your vehicle in the middle of the lane by applying continuous assistance steering torque input toward the lane center on highways.
Note: The adaptive cruise control gap setting operates normally.
If you drive off-center within the lane, the system sets and maintains that preferred lane position. The system provides continuous assistance steering torque input toward the preferred position.
Note: The system can only set preferred lane positions within the lane.
Note: If the system cancels, the preferred position erases. On the next activation, the system provides continuous assistance steering torque input toward the lane center.
 

SnBGC

Well-Known Member
First Name
Greg
Joined
Apr 20, 2020
Threads
46
Messages
5,955
Reaction score
9,749
Location
Phoenix
Vehicles
2021 Mach-E FE, 2021 Wrangler 4xe High Altitude
Occupation
Manager
Country flag
Hmmm... Is this documented somewhere by Ford?
And does this happen only in real-time? As in, as I'm actively fighting the lane centering to hold to one side it should then start trying to maintain what I'm telling it to do? Is there any long-term learning in this?
Yes. It is in the manual somewhere. Yes, real time but the car doesn't fight you too much. Pretty simple.
 

SnBGC

Well-Known Member
First Name
Greg
Joined
Apr 20, 2020
Threads
46
Messages
5,955
Reaction score
9,749
Location
Phoenix
Vehicles
2021 Mach-E FE, 2021 Wrangler 4xe High Altitude
Occupation
Manager
Country flag
It most certainly does not read stop lights or brake lights. It can only stop at a red light if there is another stopped car already there, if you’re first, you have to manually brake.
Yeah. I found out the hard way. I tested it at a red light when nobody was around and I had to jump on the brakes and skidded into the intersection.

Never had the guts to see if it would stop soon enough when a car was already stopped ahead. Most common scenario for me is cruising in the HOV lane with traffic completely stopped in the lanes to my right. Up ahead in my lane brake lights and cars at a complete stop but I am coming up at 70 mph. Car does not slow down so I have to get on the brakes. I won't bet my life or the life of others that the car will panic stop in time. I don't see how it could without crashing.
 

phidauex

Well-Known Member
First Name
Sam
Joined
Dec 8, 2020
Threads
15
Messages
840
Reaction score
1,545
Location
Colorado
Vehicles
2021 MachE 4EX, 2006 Prius, 1997 Tacoma
Occupation
Renewable Energy Engineer
Country flag
Yeah. I found out the hard way. I tested it at a red light when nobody was around and I had to jump on the brakes and skidded into the intersection.

Never had the guts to see if it would stop soon enough when a car was already stopped ahead. Most common scenario for me is cruising in the HOV lane with traffic completely stopped in the lanes to my right. Up ahead in my lane brake lights and cars at a complete stop but I am coming up at 70 mph. Car does not slow down so I have to get on the brakes. I won't bet my life or the life of others that the car will panic stop in time. I don't see how it could without crashing.
It doesn’t detect stop lights at all - though to be fair it never claimed it would. If there are no other cars then yes, you have to take over.

However, with stopped traffic it will indeed step in and slow you to a complete stop, and start you again when traffic resumes (if the delay is long, it might show “stopped” and ask for you to bump the accelerator to get it going again).

It starts slowing a beat after I would, but it does it correctly, even from 70+mph. I’ve tested a number of times with my foot hovering over the brake and it has worked correctly every time. Driving in Whisper with 3 or 4 bars on the distance indicator makes it feel more ”natural”.
 

MWJunior

Active Member
First Name
Keith
Joined
Jan 30, 2022
Threads
5
Messages
32
Reaction score
21
Location
Fresno, Ca, USA
Vehicles
2021 Mustang Mach-e Premium
Occupation
retired commercial photographer
Country flag
Hmmm... Is this documented somewhere by Ford?
And does this happen only in real-time? As in, as I'm actively fighting the lane centering to hold to one side it should then start trying to maintain what I'm telling it to do? Is there any long-term learning in this?
If I'm reading page 219 of the owners manual correctly, when you switch on lane centering, the car will maintain the position within the lane at which you switched it on.
 
OP
OP
Anton

Anton

Well-Known Member
First Name
Anton
Joined
Jan 10, 2022
Threads
14
Messages
233
Reaction score
184
Location
Fresno, CA
Vehicles
2021 Mach-E AWD ER
Occupation
MedTech Software Engineer.
Country flag
If I'm reading page 219 of the owners manual correctly, when you switch on lane centering, the car will maintain the position within the lane at which you switched it on.
Share a pic of it?
 

mpshizzle

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 22, 2021
Threads
65
Messages
1,274
Reaction score
1,589
Location
Utah
Vehicles
Mustang Mach E 4X
Country flag
If I'm reading page 219 of the owners manual correctly, when you switch on lane centering, the car will maintain the position within the lane at which you switched it on.
Ford prides itself on writing award winning fiction
Sponsored

 
 




Top