Blue Cruise Hands Free Gone Again

[Blue highway]

Used BC hands free for 100 miles or so last weekend.
This weekend BC will only stay in hands on wheel mode, drove 80 miles on the same roads this weekend stuck in hands on mode.

all settings confirmed correct, I5 and I84 same as last weekend… same weather….
Maps expire 10-12-22 which I understand to mean Dec 10

hands free turned on for about 30 seconds this morning and never returned.

it went away for a couple of weeks in the summer as well, but came back on its own. I’d like to wake it back up.

have received 3.5.4 OTA on Oct 21, so the code is fairly up to date.

Any ideas on getting BC hands free working again?

Sponsored

 

[SnBGC]

Used BC hands free for 100 miles or so last weekend.
This weekend BC will only stay in hands on wheel mode, drove 80 miles on the same roads this weekend stuck in hands on mode.

all settings confirmed correct, I5 and I84 same as last weekend… same weather….
Maps expire 10-12-22 which I understand to mean Dec 10

hands free turned on for about 30 seconds this morning and never returned.

it went away for a couple of weeks in the summer as well, but came back on its own. I’d like to wake it back up.

have received 3.5.4 OTA on Oct 21, so the code is fairly up to date.

Any ideas on getting BC hands free working again?

That is normal operation for me as well. My BCHF sometimes won't work at all or will engage and drop repeatedly. Sometimes it works for longer periods which I think is what Ford is hoping for. It is 50/50 what you will get seems Ike.

I just drove to the office and back. 22 BC miles each way. BCHF worked for a mile at most on the way there and about half the time on the way back. Some days it does good both ways. It is very random.

 

[Blue highway]

It has been very consistent for me over the last few months… on clean, dry well painted roads….

now It stays in its lane still on the same roads but will not turn on hands free…

I did a master reset when it was doing this earlier… it didn’t help.

 

[SXBB]

It worked fine for me for a 50ish mile trip a few hours ago. Is BlueCruise totally local or is there some communication with servers involved?

 

[Blue highway]

It worked fine for me for a 50ish mile trip a few hours ago. Is BlueCruise totally local or is there some communication with servers involved?

It runs locally in the car

 

[Chainspell]

I had the same problem this weekend and it was really irritating. I drove down from Sacramento to Palm Springs (500 mi) on Friday. Bluecruise hands-free was engaged nearly the entire drive.

Today I drove back up, really looking forward to hands-free as I would be tired and getting home late, and I could not get it to activate even once the entire drive back up. I took the same freeway back as I did there. I checked all my settings, nothing changed. SO ANNOYING. I definitely won’t be paying for it if it’s only going to work “sometimes” with zero explanation as to why.

 

[SnBGC]

I had the same problem this weekend and it was really irritating. I drove down from Sacramento to Palm Springs (500 mi) on Friday. Bluecruise hands-free was engaged nearly the entire drive.

Today I drove back up, really looking forward to hands-free as I would be tired and getting home late, and I could not get it to activate even once the entire drive back up. I took the same freeway back as I did there. I checked all my settings, nothing changed. SO ANNOYING. I definitely won’t be paying for it if it’s only going to work “sometimes” with zero explanation as to why.

I have a slightly different take on it. When I first got BC working (after 4 months of trying...) then I was less than impressed. Then a map update installed OTA and I was shocked how much it improved the system. I was actually starting to consider paying the subscription when the free trial expired. Unfortunately a week later another OTA reversed most of the gains from the previous good OTA.

I am kinda thankful that Ford is offering the 1 year trial period because we get to see how well or poorly it works and then make a decision about the subscription. A real life demo doesn't lie. The system isn't as good as the marketing videos make it seem.

 

[adamtstipp]

Mine does the same thing. Some days it engages right away when turning on cruise, other days on the same highway, same time (no low sun) it won't engage hands free mode. Completely random. It doesn't make sense to me. I wish someone who knew the behind the scenes technical details could help explain why this is happening.

Does it briefly ping a server to confirm you're on a bluecruise road?
Are the bluecruise maps calibration off?
Is the car really sensitive to dirty cameras and sensors?
Is there a bug in the cars software?

All I know is it worked almost every time for me when I first got the car back in May. Now it's more like 30% working when it should/70% not working when it should.

I really love the feature, but unless it gets much more consistent I won't be paying once my 3 years is up.

Hopefully the big bluecruise update that is adding lane changing and other features fixes things.

 

[Blue highway]

Same road
Same place
Same weather
Same time of day

one day works 100%
then will not work for weeks... which is where I am now.

Ford has a lot of "the ship is sinking" issues to address at the moment, but I'd really like BC reliability addressed... when it's working its one of my favorite features... when it is not, I do seriously consider just moving on to a different car.

 

[Gullwingdmc]

Yeah this happened to me Saturday and Sunday. It hasn't happened in several weeks, but it does happen often. Sometimes the next drive hands free comes back, other times it might be a day or two.

I have tried several things to troubleshoot, but I've found no solution. My best guess is it seems to be a problem with the BlueCruise map data not loading.

 

[Chainspell]

I was wondering if it was a background map issue as well. I do use the Ford built in Nav for my longer trips because I like the way it lists charging stops for the route.

However, I noticed during my return trip, where hands-free refused to engage, my elevation was way way off. It was stuck at 4400 ft, only dropping to 4300 ft over the 10+ hour drive. California Central Valley is around 100-400 ft. So something was wrong with the map in the background. I don’t know if the BC maps are related. On my first trip down with working BCHF the elevation was responsive and correct.

 

[Blue highway]

I was wondering if it was a background map issue as well. I do use the Ford built in Nav for my longer trips because I like the way it lists charging stops for the route.

However, I noticed during my return trip, where hands-free refused to engage, my elevation was way way off. It was stuck at 4400 ft, only dropping to 4300 ft over the 10+ hour drive. California Central Valley is around 100-400 ft. So something was wrong with the map in the background. I don’t know if the BC maps are related. On my first trip down with working BCHF the elevation was responsive and correct.

I do think one of the root causes of the problem could be the GPS software.

When the GPS is wrong... (usually with a fixed offset as you indicate above... either vertical or horizontal) BC hands free will not engage.

At the minute, the location seems to be correct.

I think the system reads the lat-long geo database to get altitude... if its reading a steady GPS altitude that is wrong, there is a code problem.

 

[RonTCat]

I do think one of the root causes of the problem could be the GPS software.

Yeah...

Also, FWIW... updates coming to improve driving performance (no more hugging that semi's tires).

 

[Blue highway]

Yeah...

Also, FWIW... updates coming to improve driving performance (no more hugging that semi's tires).

looking forward to that!

 

[Jim622]

Mine does the same thing. I think there are multiple problems/reasons for this.
Poor lines or visibility of lines will make it cut off for a short time.
An incorrect GPS signal or false signal will shut it off for a longer time frame.
There are multiple ways to jam GPS signals. Everything from kid's games to taxis to big trucks fooling their dispatchers. I don't know if that would affect it or not. There probably needs to be a safeguard for this.

Sponsored