BlueCruise Easily Fooled

Carsinmyblood

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It’s way more complicated than that, unless you taught middle school students how to incorporate blended sensors using three hierarchy levels of LiDAR/vision/sonar as well as information from pitch and yaw sensors, acceleration rate, accelerator position, steering angle sensors, and feedback loops from all of those, oh and more including redundant systems and safeties for all of that. But yeah, probably exactly the same as your students code!
Mine doesn't work better than a middle school project either.

Maybe the blended sensors using three hierarchy levels of LiDAR/vision/sonar as well as information from pitch and yaw sensors, acceleration rate, accelerator position, steering angle sensors, and feedback loops from all of those, oh and more including redundant systems .... weren't installed properly.

Or, it really does just use the video cameras on the mirrors to watch the stripes. Prolly that, huh?
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Jimrpa

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We were driving north at 70mph on I-15 through Las Vegas (by Strip) last evening and set the BlueCruise. All was great until we got past Tropicana. Apparently, some dumbass had recently driven in this lane and dumped a 3-mile long spill of white paint. It was very subtle, but got more noticeable as we kept going.

They must have either been in a hurry or very drunk. I say this because at one point, the paint line severely turned to the left. We were fine until we reached that point, and the car nearly drove us right into the Jersey wall highway divider.
Full collision warnings, lights, buzzers, etc.
I have always kept my hands and attention “on guard” while BlueCruise driving, but this really shocked and scared me. It really scared the crap out of everyone else in the car.

I now know a few things;

1. If going north through Las Vegas, don’t drive with BlueCruise on while in the carpool lane, at least not in the near future. The paint should eventually fade.

2. I had thought that streets were “pre-mapped” to be part of BlueCruise, which meant they don’t just rely on cameras on the car. That’s clearly not true, and you really should not trust this system yet.

3. (ATTN: FORD) I now wish there was a place to post alerts in real time to warn other BlueCruise drivers regarding active road hazards, such as paint spills that could wreck your car.

I really want to trust self-driving systems, but they just aren’t ready for prime-time yet. Please be safe and don’t ever take your hands off the wheel.
I understand that many of you on this forum will disagree with me, but only until a scare like this happens to you.

IF YOU HAVE TO USE BC, PLEASE STAY ON GUARD AT ALL TIMES!
It’s not “self driving”, it’s advanced driving assistance. You are doing the right thing to be paying attention and resume hands-on driving at all times. I’m puzzled as to why you waited until the car was headed towards the Jersey barrier and the collision alert system was going off before you did anything?
 

Jimrpa

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One of the biggest issues I've seen with this car is that Ford doesn't use enough (or the right) words to describe their products or functionality.

Ford doesn't say anywhere that BlueCruise uses GPS to navigate the roads, but they (as well as new outlets) have used the phrases such as "GPS mapped roads". Which does give the impression that they've done some work to integrate your GPS location into how BlueCruise steers (which is not the case).

The same goes for the "Speed Sign Recognition" setting. This setting definitely incorporates "known" speed limits by GPS and not only limits it recognizes from the camera. So the name is deceptive and this isn't stated in the help text and can be very dangerous if your vehicle suddenly accelerates or decelerates if you're not expecting it.
The speed sign recognition system does certainly DOES recognize speed limit signs (I drive on roads with electronic variable speed limits).
 
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Jimrpa

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lane keep. If you can't trust lane keep, you sure can't trust something more complicated.
Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) and Lane Centering Assist (LSA) are two different functions. Lane Keeping is more basic - it will apply a torque to the steering wheel to remind you to drive within your lane if it detects that the car is exiting the lane. Lane keeping assist provides a torque to the steering wheel to help you keep your car centered within the lane markings. Important note: with both systems, you are still driving your car and responsible for all driving inputs and safe operation.
 

Blue highway

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Mine doesn't work better than a middle school project either.

Maybe the blended sensors using three hierarchy levels of LiDAR/vision/sonar as well as information from pitch and yaw sensors, acceleration rate, accelerator position, steering angle sensors, and feedback loops from all of those, oh and more including redundant systems .... weren't installed properly.

Or, it really does just use the video cameras on the mirrors to watch the stripes. Prolly that, huh?
it really just uses the cameras to stay in its lane... try wiping the crud off the cameras. It is important for drivers to understand how things like this work to better understand when it will work well and when it will have difficulty.
 


RickMachE

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it really just uses the cameras to stay in its lane... try wiping the crud off the cameras. It is important for drivers to understand how things like this work to better understand when it will work well and when it will have difficulty.
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Cm12

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Blue cruise only works on DIVIDED highways for a reason. It still needs to see lanes to work, and gps isn't anywhere near precision enough to keep it in a lane like the poster above me pointed out, along with construction variables.

The hands free is only on divided highways in case it wigs out and you're not fast enough to grab it you hit a k rail or another car going the same direction, and not have an oncoming collision where everyone dies.

Any lane questions, faded lines, construction, I just put my hands on the wheel in case it has a crisis and acts weirdly.
Which is one of the biggest issues with BC - it strongly encourages you to keep your hands off the wheel. The ridiculously poor design of the eye nanny causes your hands or arms to interfere with its line of sight unless you keep your hands solely on the lower part of the wheel. If not, you get constant warnings which get annoying quickly. It’s much easier to just keep your hands off the wheel instead of dealing with the eye nanny.
 

RickMachE

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Which is one of the biggest issues with BC - it strongly encourages you to keep your hands off the wheel. The ridiculously poor design of the eye nanny causes your hands or arms to interfere with its line of sight unless you keep your hands solely on the lower part of the wheel. If not, you get constant warnings which get annoying quickly. It’s much easier to just keep your hands off the wheel instead of dealing with the eye nanny.
Apparently you're not aware of the ability to toggle off the "handsfree" capability if you don't want to use it.
 

JoeDimwit

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It’s way more complicated than that, unless you taught middle school students how to incorporate blended sensors using three hierarchy levels of LiDAR/vision/sonar as well as information from pitch and yaw sensors, acceleration rate, accelerator position, steering angle sensors, and feedback loops from all of those, oh and more including redundant systems and safeties for all of that. But yeah, probably exactly the same as your students code!
Ford isn’t using sonar or LiDAR for lane centering or BlueCruise. If you have a source that states otherwise, I’d love to see it.
 

krafty81

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I would change the title of this post. I do not think BC is "easily fooled". You drove in an area where you recognized bad markings on the road. You put your hands on the wheel to be ready. Mine has never been "fooled", it senses excess curves or confusing markings and disengages.
 

krafty81

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Which is one of the biggest issues with BC - it strongly encourages you to keep your hands off the wheel. The ridiculously poor design of the eye nanny causes your hands or arms to interfere with its line of sight unless you keep your hands solely on the lower part of the wheel. If not, you get constant warnings which get annoying quickly. It’s much easier to just keep your hands off the wheel instead of dealing with the eye nanny.
Don't know what you are talking about here. I have never had that.
 
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LVMike

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It’s not “self driving”, it’s advanced driving assistance. You are doing the right thing to be paying attention and resume hands-on driving at all times. I’m puzzled as to why you waited until the car was headed towards the Jersey barrier and the collision alert system was going off before you did anything?
You ask a fair question, but you must understand that we were at highway speeds (70-75mph) and this all happened in a very jarring split second or two. It wasn't like it casually veered towards the jersey wall or anything. It just suddenly jerked the vehicle nose towards the wall, then all of the alarms went off. From the time the change in direction happened through my recovering control was approx. 2-3 seconds. Just enough to scare the life out of everyone else in the car.

Again, my whole point of this discussion thread is that this happened so damn fast, and the results could have easily been very bad, that I thought it worth sharing the experience with others. If it helps even one driver keep up their guard while using this system, then I think it was worth the time.
 

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Ford isn’t using sonar or LiDAR for lane centering or BlueCruise. If you have a source that states otherwise, I’d love to see it.
And your sources backing up your stance that it’s only cameras programmed by a middle schooler? Don’t worry I already checked for you, there aren’t any. Tesla was the only mfg that switched to vision only for a while and failed and reverted back to vision plus radar.

Unfortunately the tech used is proprietary and sources are lacking that are available on the internet, but it absolutely includes multiple sensors.

Your cameras probably aren’t calibrated correctly from the factory if your lane centering isn’t working well. Mine has been fantastic, with zero issues. Might be worth warranty claim before you run out of warranty coverage.
 
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LVMike

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I would change the title of this post. I do not think BC is "easily fooled". You drove in an area where you recognized bad markings on the road. You put your hands on the wheel to be ready. Mine has never been "fooled", it senses excess curves or confusing markings and disengages.
Prior to this split-second swerve towards the jersey wall, there was zero indication of "bad markings" on the road". In other words, the car did not act funny prior to almost turning 90-degrees at 75mph into the wall. It all happened in a split-second. It was much like if you blew out a tire on the freeway and the car suddenly jerked violently to one side. If you constantly expect that to happen, then why you to ever take your hands off the wheel? Unless of course you were under the impression that it was reasonably safe to do so, which is what the use of BC (fairly or not) conveys to the driver.
 

Cm12

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Apparently you're not aware of the ability to toggle off the "handsfree" capability if you don't want to use it.
Uh, I am very aware of it. But I was commenting on BlueCruise, not on whether it could be turned off or not. What I do not know, however, is why you constantly need to be snarky and condescending to almost everyone on this forum on such a regular basis. Would you like to enlighten us on that?
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