Finally got BlueCruise yesterday… (first impressions)

[JoeDimwit]

The timing was fortuitous. Because I had a short overnight trip planned, which gave me a chance to try it out.

The first thing I noticed was that active lane centering on surface streets seems better to me. Like less fighting against the wheel is required.

Once I got onto the expressway, and got full hands-free capability, it was a bit nerve wracking at firstn like riding shotgun with someone that has had their drivers license for about a year… you don’t feel like you’re seconds from oblivion all the time, but it happens once in a while. Like when there’s a semi in the next lane, and the car decides to drift that way in the lane. Also, there was a strong crosswind last night, and the car had to keep correcting into the wind.

There were a couple curves in the road that BlueCruise didn’t like, and so required me to put my hands back on the wheel. This also happened when the lane markings were very worn and faded, so if you regularly drive areas like that, be ready to need to intervene.

A couple times, while taking a sip of Mountain Dew (it was the zero sugar one, get off me), the eye nanny buzzed at me to keep my eyes on the road. This also happened once or twice while I was using the main screen to choose a different radio station.

The way home today was during the early afternoon rather than last nights drive out after midnight, and I felt much more confident in the systems ability to not unalienable me. It still wanted to drift toward the edges of the lane, not necessarily porpoising, but one minute it would be hugging the left side of the lane, then a mile later it would be hugging the right side. This happened quite a bit, but it was only unnerving when the lane it was riding toward was occupied.

the Roads I was on weren’t very crowded, which gave me more confidence to let the system work, and I’m sure I’ll be a ball of nerves the first time I decide to let it drive me through a good traffic jam.

Overall, id give the system a solid 7 out of 10. There’s definitely some room for improvement. I’m looking forward to watching this system improve as they gather more data.

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[macchiaz-o]

I used hands free BlueCruise for my first few drives yesterday, too.

On my first drive, I was on a straight 10 miles or so of freeway. There was a good amount of traffic, lots of people jockeying around each other and so forth. I kept wanting to have my hands near the wheel, and foot near the pedal, just in case. But my lunch buddy pointed it out and tried to get me to chill out. It worked extremely well.

On my drive home from work, the hands free mode deactivated itself multiple times, with some message telling me to steer. (I don't remember the phasing but it was like lane centering where you haven't torqued the wheel for awhile.) This happened to be during curves but they aren't steep curves or anything.

That particular freeway section has lots of curves. It follows the path of a river bed. The other curves were fine, so I'm not sure how it decides to give up.

I've heard that Ford is transitioning from its current road data supplier to Intel Mobileye... And one of the benefits we'll obtain as a result is the data that will better inform the vehicle about curves and how/when to slow down or speed up for the sharper/steeper stuff. It'll be interesting to see if this rolls out to our 2021 vehicles, eventually.

One other thing... Starting around the 2.5.1 update, lane centering (and BlueCruise) seems to place the vehicle closer to the right edge of the lane than it did before. It's unnerving while driving by big trucks or whatnot on the vehicle's right. Of course, as the driver I can always steer, and I leaned over to see the view from the middle and it does appear to be centered between the lanes... But it's still unnerving unless I'm in the rightmost lane (then it is welcome).

 

[JamieGeek]

Yeah took a 70 mile drive today just to play with BC as well.

I noticed that it wanted to hand back control near interstate interchanges.

BC stayed on for most of the curves in the roads we were taking.

At one point we got stuck in a traffic jam. It performed flawlessly with one exception: They should increase the auto-resume timeout--a couple of times I had to turn it back on because traffic was stopped too long.

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

I noticed that it wanted to hand back control near interstate interchanges.

That's by design at this point

 

[Pioneer74]

A couple times, while taking a sip of Mountain Dew (it was the zero sugar one, get off me), the eye nanny buzzed at me to keep my eyes on the road. This also happened once or twice while I was using the main screen to choose a different radio station.

Diet Dew tastes better than Zero Sugar.

That's all I got. Thanks for your review.

 

[phil]

...it was a bit nerve wracking at first...you don’t feel like you’re seconds from oblivion all the time, but it happens...it was only unnerving when the lane it was riding toward was occupied...I’m sure I’ll be a ball of nerves the first time I decide to let it drive me through a good traffic jam.

Overall, id give the system a solid 7 out of 10. There’s definitely some room for improvement. I’m looking forward to watching this system improve as they gather more data.

The nerve wracking is permanent, or should be. Nervousness is exactly the right attitude, when your car might decide to misbehave at any moment, even though it probably won't.

7 sounds right to me. It's an impressive system.

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