BlueCruise - Why?

[HuntingPudel]

I agree with @Larry Paul on the MME GT-PE being a great car for my use case. It’s a great commuter with IACC on. It’s fun to drive. It’s pretty quick. My biggest problem is my low mi/KWH because I am at 2/3 throttle so much. ??‍?

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[DrAchoo]

I use BlueCruise every day as I have a six mile trip on the I-5 to and from work. I'm a fan. Some people wonder what benefit taking your hands off gives over adaptive cruise with lane assist, but in my opinion I very much dislike having my hands on the wheel during lane assist. It feels like a tug-of-war where neither of us (me and the car) know who is REALLY in charge. So I either have it OFF and I drive 100%, or I have it on and I have my hands off the wheel.

The relaxation effect is real (at least in my estimation). I'm about to take a trip to Seattle (300 miles) tomorrow and I'm interested to see what amount of stress reduction using it will give while doing the long stretches between metropolitan areas.

 

[Larry Paul]

I agree with @Larry Paul on the MME GT-PE being a great car for my use case. It’s a great commuter with IACC on. It’s fun to drive. It’s pretty quick. My biggest problem is my low mi/KWH because I am at 2/3 throttle so much. ??‍?

Sorry- what is "IACC"

 

[HuntingPudel]

Sorry- what is "IACC"

Intelligent Adaptive Cruise Control

 

[Jim Guthry]

manual steering -> power steering - > ver 1 adaptive cruise control - > blue cruise (or whatever other manufacturers call it)

Basically they all are driver's assist to make it easier and safer, as long as you still pay attention. For tedious driving tasks it is very helpful. It has also saved my ass more than a few times when I wasn't really paying full attention. BUT, you don't have to use these features.

So what's next? I guess level 3 and then full automated driving. That is kind of scary. People in cars are just WAY to unpredictable in spit seconds. I doubt any current computer and auto hardware can quite keep up in real time yet. to crazy.

In the time it took you to type “crazy” that device you used made and executed millions, if not billions of decisions and instructions. People overestimate humans I think ?

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

I’m glad BlueCruise is an option for some. But it definitely isn’t for me. My eyes wander while driving more than my hands wander while driving.
So IACC with Lane Centering works for me. Keep hands on wheel and let the car do its thing, even in the dreaded stop and go traffic, with minimal input. The car doesn’t care if I look down to my coffee cup or check that field I pass for any deer in it. Plus it works in town or country roads.
Give me blue cruise and I will be using both hands to try and grope around for my coffee cup or snacks while getting yelled at if I glance away. It would stress me more to have to stare at the road than to keep a hand draped on the wheel.

 

[HuntingPudel]

BlueCruise really isn’t an option for me either since I am an old dog who needs the metal roof. ??

Deer? Yummy! ??

 

[Mirak]

I don’t think it has ever been confirmed one way or the other that the BC “highway mapping” actually improves the lane centering functionality. @Ford Motor Company has never weighed in on this, which would indicate to me that BC likely does not do this and, instead, simply swaps an eye nanny for a hand nanny in geofenced areas.

I will say that being able to not have a hand on the wheel would be more physically relaxing on long drives, particularly because I have to constantly nudge the wheel to placate the hand nanny. Evidently my resting a hand on the wheel isn’t enough input to satisfy the torque sensor. That gets quite annoying. Would the over-sensitive eye nanny be just as annoying? I don’t know because I haven’t been able to test BC.

 

[drjones32]

How do people have BlueCruise now? I thought it wasn't out yet?

 

[Mirak]

How do people have BlueCruise now? I thought it wasn't out yet?

It comes pre-installed from the factory now. It’s only us “early adopters” that can’t get it because Ford has delayed - sorry, “re-timed” - the distribution by OTA.

Man, “re-timed”…. that was really terrific.

 

[DrAchoo]

Would the over-sensitive eye nanny be just as annoying? I don’t know because I haven’t been able to test BC.

I have tested this and I can cover my eyes (peering through my fingers so I'm actually still watching) for seven seconds before I get a beep. That's quite a bit of time in reality and so you don't feel like you are getting beeped at every single time you inadvertently look at the screen or a passenger or something pretty out the window.

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

I have tested this and I can cover my eyes (peering through my fingers so I'm actually still watching) for seven seconds before I get a beep. That's quite a bit of time in reality and so you don't feel like you are getting beeped at every single time you inadvertently look at the screen or a passenger or something pretty out the window.

Well that sounds reasonable. Seems like a lot of people were saying it went off continuously. 7 seconds is a long time.

 

[dgilles428]

My MEe Premium is equipped and ready for the BlueCruise OTA. I understand it will arrive right after the Great Pumpkin shows up in Linus' pumpkin patch.

I hear great anticipation for its arrival in this and other forums and it makes me wonder what we get with it? I find the adaptive cruise control to be a nice advancement over my older cars so I wonder what more is there?

I see the ads for GM Cruise (whatever they call their hands-free cruise control) They seem to focus on the option for playing paddy cake or doing an endless version of slap,slap, clap to that Queen song. That'll make the miles melt away on a long road trip. ;-))

Is hands-free the best part of BlueCruise? Why? What better place do YOU have for your hands while in the car?

What am I missing here?

My GTpe has BlueCruise already active, and I have used it to go over 10 miles hands free on a local interstate .. fun demonstration, unfortunately I have no plans to take this car on the road, I wish my Transit 350HD (Coachmen Beyond) had it, it would be great to see it fight the crosswinds in OK.

 

[Jeff DeMello]

What am I missing here?

Well, for me, I just turned 65 on Thanksgiving, and I can tell (and my wife constantly reminds me) that my reflexes are NOT as fast as they used to be.

Also, 4 years ago, I was in a head-on collision (not my fault) and I spent 3 months (and 12 surgeries) at Stanford Hospital (including 12 pins in my spine, and 4 fused vertebra), followed by 9 months in a nursing home. I will take ANY AND ALL automated help that my car can give me, as I don't want to go through this agian.

 

[rzanzerkia]

I have had some experience with ACC and LKAS on Acura MDX.
I found that on long drives (particularly on highway speeds), it reduced the fatigue of driving.
We don't realize but constant steering control requires muscle use that gets tiring as you get old.
Basically I would rest my hands on the steering wheel and it would keep the car centered in the lane and ACC made sure I didn't run into slow car in front of me.

I have seen videos of Blue Cruise and it looks promising.
I do have a concern though, if your hand is NOT already on the steering wheel the reaction to emergency would be slower. so I still may gently rest my hands on the steering wheel.
Eye monitoring is an interesting design and I have to experience how sensitive it is.
It needs to balance glancing at radio to change station vs reading a long text etc.

You can tell I don't have the car yet to try BC

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