BlueCruise 1.2 Update Includes Hands-Free Lane Changing

[timbop]

I seriously doubt that Farley has ever HEARD of this forum. If so, he probably has some underling give him a printed weekly summary of the most critical issues, which would tend more toward things like posts about HVBJB. I’ll bet Farley doesn’t even know job 1 cars don’t have a remote frunk release

I believe Farley is very much aware of this forum. I am certain there is more than 1 highly placed Ford employee who even posts here.

I got the exact same response from my media contact at Ford:
"Not yet. We will share more about Ford Power-Up and Lincoln Enhance software updates as they are available."

Depending on how you look at it, it is good news or bad news. They actually say "not yet"which to me means that it is coming. But, "not yet" could mean 3 months, 6 months, a year.

I did/do have worries that they could say current Mach-Es don't have the hardware or say that it is an added feature for an additional cost. They are calling it v1.2 which sounds more like it might not be either of those. I think if they were going that route they would have called it BlueCruise 2.0 or Ultra BlueCruise (shout out to EA!).

Reading tea leaves is a bitch. It could be that they simply haven't decided, and want to see what kind of reaction bitching they get before deciding. There may even be infighting within the upper echelons with those that treat the Mach E as software to be updated vs the traditionalist hardware folks who treat a model year as being "deprecated" when the next model year comes out.

My personal suspicion is that Palmer, Farley, and Field are leaning toward allowing the older cars to upgrade, which is why the new features are designated 1.2 instead of 2.0. If it required new hardware I believe they would have called it 2.0.

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[DadwithaMach]

Well, it says coming this fall and there won't be any 2023 vehicles delivered before the end of the year....

ETA: Yes, I am an eternal optimist.

Oh there will be 23s being delivered production starts Oct 31st / Nov 1st

The roll over from 22s will be getting this which makes them 23s

 

[RickMachE]

I thought I read somewhere that there are folks pretty high up at Ford who peruse our forums.

You did. They do.

 

[SnBGC]

**Press Release**

Ford Motor Company continues making hands-free driving even better by launching BlueCruise 1.2* and Lincoln ActiveGlide 1.2 with new features – including hands-free lane changing – and system updates to create more of a human-like driving feel.

The available new system starts arriving on vehicles from the factory this fall – beginning with the Ford Mustang Mach-E.

“We are investing in our ADAS team to constantly improve BlueCruise and ActiveGlide for our customers,” said Doug Field, Chief EV & Digital Systems Officer, Ford Model e. “The latest improvements allow customers to command lane changes using just a turn signal, and make hands-free driving feel more human-like by smoothly slowing down for turns, and giving more room to large vehicles in neighboring lanes. These improvements are just the beginning of a constant journey toward improving safety and giving customers valuable time back.”

Available BlueCruise 1.2 and ActiveGlide 1.2 include three new features:

• Lane Change Assist can help drivers move through traffic on the freeway with more confidence while using BlueCruise. The system will perform a hands-free lane change when requested by the driver tapping the turn signal, and it can even suggest if a lane change would be beneficial when following slow-moving traffic.
• Predictive Speed Assist automatically and smoothly adjusts the speed as drivers approach a sharp curve and will help signal the driver ahead of time when a speed change is about to occur, so they understand why the vehicle is slowing.
• In-Lane Repositioning makes the hands-free highway driving experience feel more natural, keeping the vehicle in its lane while subtly shifting the vehicle’s position away from vehicles in adjacent lanes – especially helpful when next to bigger vehicles such as semis.

Ford engineers also are dedicated to improving its ADAS to deliver more human-like driving performance, in addition to refining visuals, sensing and steering experiences. They’ve also been continually improving maps with over-the-air updates identifying prequalified sections of divided highways where BlueCruise can be used – currently spanning more than 130,000 miles.

Once a pre-qualified road is identified, BlueCruise-equipped vehicles sense and help confirm lane lines are visible, the driver has his or her eyes on the road and other conditions appropriate before transitioning to hands-free driving. BlueCruise uses animated cluster transitions featuring text and blue lighting cues to communicate that the feature is in hands-free mode, effective even for those with color blindness.

Collectively, 75,000 Ford and Lincoln owners enrolled in BlueCruise and ActiveGlide, with more than 16 million hands-free driving miles accumulated through the end of August.

I don't really see any benefit in Lane Changes but the other two items sound useful. Right now BCHF will drop out to BCHO or some more aggressive curves so slowing down to remain in control sounds reasonable. It's kinda what we do as a driver anyway so that would likely feel more natural. Same for the last item IMO...

Overall, sounds like some reasonable improvements.

 

[Jimrpa]

I thought I read somewhere that there are folks pretty high up at Ford who peruse our forums.

You mean the interns?

 

[Jimrpa]

The former chief engineer for the Mach-e is known to lurk on the forum.

Is the operative word “former”?

 

[RickMachE]

I don't really see any benefit in Lane Changes but the other two items sound useful. Right now BCHF will drop out to BCHO or some more aggressive curves so slowing down to remain in control sounds reasonable. It's kinda what we do as a driver anyway so that would likely feel more natural. Same for the last time IMO...

Overall, sounds like some reasonable improvements.

OUTRAGEOUS! OUTRAGEOUS! You must find fault, you must find fault!

 

[imstriker]

I bet this is coming to our cars in "Fall".

 

[Mach-Lee]

Predictive Speed Assist could be very annoying if they make it too conservative. Nobody slows down for the curves BlueCruise drops out on my drive. If the thing starts slowing down 5-10 MPH on those curves I’m going to have angry drivers behind me. Having to switch lanes on the turns to let cars by would be annoying when you’re going to speed back up again after.

I really hope they make it adjustable for people that want to maintain speed in curves.

 

[SnBGC]

OUTRAGEOUS! OUTRAGEOUS! You must find fault, you must find fault!

Everytime I look in the mirror.....

 

[awp0]

Granted there's still not enough information, but you'd have to be quite an optimist to take the data points in this thread combined with the history of MME OTA's and then conclude that this is ever coming to our cars.

Honestly I find it very frustrating that they didn't comment on existing cars in the press release, because if they had plans for this then I'm sure they'd take every chance to brag about it (and then proceed to set unachievable timelines, etc).

 

[SWO]

Granted there's still not enough information, but you'd have to be quite an optimist to take the data points in this thread combined with the history of MME OTA's and then conclude that this is ever coming to our cars.

Honestly I find it very frustrating that they didn't comment on existing cars in the press release, because if they had plans for this then I'm sure they'd take every chance to brag about it (and then proceed to set unachievable timelines, etc).

Huh? What "history of MME OTAs" leads you to believe we won't get updates planned for existing models?

Bluecruise? Check.
Charging Curve? Check.
Usable battery? Check.
Frunk? In progress.

What am I forgetting?

 

[awp0]

Huh? What "history of MME OTAs" leads you to believe we won't get updates planned for existing models?

Bluecruise? Check.
Charging Curve? Check.
Usable battery? Check.
Frunk? In progress.

What am I forgetting?

True, those are nice things. I guess my expectations were higher that we'd see more of a steady stream of enhancements. Granted I'm a newer owner, but the pace just seems slow to me. More importantly I'm skeptical that they'll feel as obligated to deliver a major BC feature update as they were to deliver the actual BC option that people had purchased (especially when they failed to talk about it in a press release).

 

[The Black Horse]

We all are in here fighting each other instead of our true oppressor Ford Motor Company!

 

[Neil4Real]

Huh? What "history of MME OTAs" leads you to believe we won't get updates planned for existing models?

Bluecruise? Check.
Charging Curve? Check.
Usable battery? Check.
Frunk? In progress.

What am I forgetting?

Being that it has taken this long and there still isn't a simple frunk button for Job 1... that alone is pretty glaring. There are also reports of people still not getting just normal BC over the air or it ever working after they've supposedly received it OTA.

I definitely think it is valid to be pessimistic, especially when Ford won't even say it will come at some point, just "not yet." That's just a very odd choice of words and doesn't inspire much confidence. It really should NOT be hard with all the OTAs they're pushing out to update the modules necessary to get this on '21s and '22s BEFORE '23s hit the road.

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