Confidence is eroding on my Mach-E

[Neilthepilot]

Just so you know, the Auto Pilot in aircraft have been around since at least WWII. Even on today's half billion dollar aircraft that can land themselves under the right conditions. they still have hick-ups. Being typed in many commercial aircraft (9), I've had "Auto Pilot" problems in all of them that required quick intervention.

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[jrstinkfish]

“Hands-free” does not mean relinquishing your responsibility for safe operation of the auto. Consider: aircraft have had autopilot systems for many decades and they operate in a much more structured environment than the Washington beltway at rush hour ? Do you really think that the pilots in the cockpit then kick back, chill, read articles on MachEForm.com and take naps? ?

Well that's kind of an extreme example. The point was it encourages you to remove your hands and trust it will make the right choices. The car suddenly wanting to merge into a truck beside you at 80mph is pretty terrifying, whether you're paying full attention or not. I am not saying you should be able to hop in the back seat and take a nap, but you should be able to trust your car won't suddenly become one with the car beside you if you don't react to its lane change decision quickly enough.

I would use the hands-free feature if I had the highway entirely to myself, but would never trust a car to behave properly with traffic around me, we're just not there yet and I'm not willing to use my safety for this experiment.

 

[phil]

Are there exceptions / restrictions on the licenses issued? Did the GM and Waymo AI’s have to interact conversationally with the state trooper during the exam? How did the AIs see and respond to the troopers body language (for example, “let’s parallel park over there.”, while pointing to the right side of the road, between two cars)? Is there ain in-car video of the entire interaction between the trooper and the AI during the exam?

No, none of that. The AI's just slipped the test supervisors $100, and never even had to take the road test. They may be artificial, but they're not stupid.

 

[Husky44]

I guess I'm an anomaly. I don't like adaptive cruise on my wife's Subaru and don't plan to use driver assist or any of the fancy things at highway speed.

I'm getting the AI doo-dads to do the 15 mph rush hour stuff on I5. Highway speed-I wanna drive! It's the traffic jams I'll let the car do for me. ?

 

[Luke]

Hi All,

It has been a while since I've posted. I still got my Mach-E and for the most part things are going well. There is something that has been happening lately while driving that is eroding my confidence in my safety in this vehicle.

When I am on the highway, I usually always have adaptive cruise control on with lane centering on. Lately, at least four times now, I would be driving and the car would abruptly cut the accelerator and flash "Adaptive Cruise" in the driver console. Another time the car jerked the steering to the right for a split second as well. This is literally terrifying when this happens. The most interesting thing that I've noticed is that when this does happen it always happens when there is a semi on the right side of my car when I'm passing. It makes me wonder if there is some kind of equipment in semis that are throwing the electronics or what.

Anyone had this experience yet? I've tried looking to see if Ford has some kind of Mach-E specific feedback/comments email address, but I haven't found one yet.

I have seen some YouTube videos showing the MME did some strange turns (jerks) during sunset when the sun faced the camera directly (probably blinding it a bit).

About the semi, I rented a Tesla on Turo a couple weeks ago, it had the FSD package and it felt like Tesla was afraid of the semi, it would disable the drive assist every time it approached one on an adjacent lane.

 

[Jim Glass]

Hi All,

It has been a while since I've posted. I still got my Mach-E and for the most part things are going well. There is something that has been happening lately while driving that is eroding my confidence in my safety in this vehicle.

When I am on the highway, I usually always have adaptive cruise control on with lane centering on. Lately, at least four times now, I would be driving and the car would abruptly cut the accelerator and flash "Adaptive Cruise" in the driver console. Another time the car jerked the steering to the right for a split second as well. This is literally terrifying when this happens. The most interesting thing that I've noticed is that when this does happen it always happens when there is a semi on the right side of my car when I'm passing. It makes me wonder if there is some kind of equipment in semis that are throwing the electronics or what.

Anyone had this experience yet? I've tried looking to see if Ford has some kind of Mach-E specific feedback/comments email address, but I haven't found one yet.

Never had it happen except at times the road splits from 2 to 4 lanes and the road lines split apart.

 

[BruceWayne]

Hi All,

It has been a while since I've posted. I still got my Mach-E and for the most part things are going well. There is something that has been happening lately while driving that is eroding my confidence in my safety in this vehicle.

When I am on the highway, I usually always have adaptive cruise control on with lane centering on. Lately, at least four times now, I would be driving and the car would abruptly cut the accelerator and flash "Adaptive Cruise" in the driver console. Another time the car jerked the steering to the right for a split second as well. This is literally terrifying when this happens. The most interesting thing that I've noticed is that when this does happen it always happens when there is a semi on the right side of my car when I'm passing. It makes me wonder if there is some kind of equipment in semis that are throwing the electronics or what.

Anyone had this experience yet? I've tried looking to see if Ford has some kind of Mach-E specific feedback/comments email address, but I haven't found one yet.

I have the exact same issue, posted it in another thread, it also has been happening a few months.
If there is a car to the right of me, when using cruise, the car will actually brake fairly hard and show collision alert.
Can't use intelligent cruise unless I am on a single lane road or the right hand lane, or nobody else....

 

[bosbruce]

In my opinion and experience the self driving technology and assist just isn't ready. Don't trust it, don't use it.

It isn't perfect but it can certainly be helpful (like cruise) to allow a little shifting of feet and arms for periods on long trips. I haven't had issues like OP here, and actually like the feature on my Mach E (JOB 1, 9K miles) more than my Tesla Model 3 where I had far more often (and pretty scary at times) phantom braking.

Mach E from my experience tends to more readily warn/disengage when not able to handle situation (sharp curve, lack of proper lane markings), while TSLA seems to prefer the "fake it until you make it" approach which allows it to handle certain situations without disengaging while at other times I had to really fight to regain control as it veered aggressively off course.

Interested to hear if others experience what OP reports;My suggestion to OP would be don't trust it, but use it if you need it... just pay attention and disable when passing Semis for now

 

[phil]

I guess I'm an anomaly. I don't like adaptive cruise on my wife's Subaru and don't plan to use driver assist or any of the fancy things at highway speed.

No, you're the normal one.

 

[danf]

The series of updates that should soon take you up to 2.5.3 and BlueCruise should both improve the hands-on ADAS and add Hands-Free.

Where do I look to find "all" the various versions of software/hardware that are in the MME?

 

[ChasingCoral]

Where do I look to find "all" the various versions of software/hardware that are in the MME?

Hardware? As in every supplier shift of every little part? Doesn't exist.

There are threads on here that provide information on the software versions, SSMs, etc. Here's one place to start:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/index-of-power-ups-tsbs-recalls-and-ssms.12487/post-307682

If that doesn't provide what you need, try the search feature.

 

[Pibbman]

I have seen some YouTube videos showing the MME did some strange turns (jerks) during sunset when the sun faced the camera directly (probably blinding it a bit).

About the semi, I rented a Tesla on Turo a couple weeks ago, it had the FSD package and it felt like Tesla was afraid of the semi, it would disable the drive assist every time it approached one on an adjacent lane.

Interestingly enough, I have noticed this is pretty bad on my car. I often pick up my little one from daycare and on the way home the sun is always in my camera. My car drives like it is blinded itself. The steering wheel judders around a bit and slight movement on the road with sun in the way. At this point, I almost always firmly have both hands on my steering wheel when the sun is like that.

Also, thanks for everyone who has responded so far. I should say that I don't treat my car like hands-free - it doesn't have BC yet anyways - and usually just rest one hand on it. I still very much treat this car like it is in beta. So when the car does what I said in initial post, it still scares the living crap out of me. I actually had the semi thing happen again just yesterday.

I reached out to Ford as requested earlier in this thread and will keep people posted.

 

[Pibbman]

Hi all,

An update. Ford Motor Company created a case for their EV team to look at this. I also setup an appointment with the dealer and they said they found a TSB22-2109 for this issue. This is where the IPMA and the PSCM were programmed (whatever those are...)

They also said they did the BlueCruise Module Programming caused by recall 21g01. It took 4 tries for them (over 8 hours) to get a successful programming. They also did the software calibration update on multiple modules.

This all being said I'm still on Powerup 2.4.1. Honestly, I thought it meant they were gonna finish upgrading the car and finally getting BlueCruise enabled. This isn't the case. I do know something changed because I see some visual cues on my instrument panel that were different than it was before.

Now we'll see if this happens again and alas my wait for Bluecruise continues on...

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