Hands on the wheel... always with cruise engaged?

[JMCH]

Please pardon a neophyte question... I’ve never had a car with anything more than basic cruise control. Now that our GT order is live, we decided to test drive a Mach E. I thought I was excited before!! Buuuuuut... I only engaged the cruise for a few miles, but from what I could tell it would shut off if both my hands weren’t on the wheel. PLEASE tell me there’s some way to dumb it down to the point that I still have cruise with just a few fingers of one hand on the wheel! is it really a choice between two hands or no cruise at all?! Say it ain’t so!

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[Murse-In-Airy]

Yes. What the car senses is whether there is any resistance to its continuous micro-corrections of the steering. A little torque against it works. Whether that is accomplished with one hand, or two fingers, it just requires a couple lbs of resistance.

 

[macchiaz-o]

Yeah I typically drive one handed and it's been fine. The system is checking for you to make slight corrections to its steering to try to verify that you're still in control of driving.

 

[mattbostonmache]

Hands on the wheel is required to use copilot 360.
But by the time your GT comes in, Blue Cruise hands free cruise control should be functional (coming Q3 this year)

 

[Jimrpa]

Hands on the wheel is required. Even with the older cruise control systems that simply maintained a preset speed, you, as the driver, had to maintain directional control of the vehicle at all times. The Mustang Mach e just comes with some sophisticated systems that can help you maintain your car in its lane. Later, you’ll have the option to subscribe to BlueCruise which will allow limited hands-off driving on certain roads. However, you are still driving and must remain aware of the road and be ready to resume control at any moment. Your car will not be, in any way, “self-driving”.

 

[louibluey]

I was thinking about the force from just one hand on one side of the wheel the other day. The more I thought about it, I was starting to feel like I was pulling the car to one side of the lane. But, when I forced myself let go, there was no significant shift either way, MME stayed right where it was in the lane.

I was actually starting to wonder if I might accidentally shift the follow point to one side of the lane by holding too much force on one side, but I think you have to literally move the car over in the lane, and then hold it there for some tens of seconds to re-calibrate the "normal" lane position.

Agree that you just need to hold or make some small inputs, but it is slightly more force than I needed and was used to with Honda Clarity and lane following.

 

[JMCH]

I appreciate the replies! As I said in my original post, I’m not looking to drive hands free (yet), I just wanted to make sure I’d be able to use this cruise like I’ve always used cruise... with my left elbow on the armrest and a couple few fingers of my left hand holding the wheel.

 

[JoeDimwit]

I appreciate the replies! As I said in my original post, I’m not looking to drive hands free (yet), I just wanted to make sure I’d be able to use this cruise like I’ve always used cruise... with my left elbow on the armrest and a couple few fingers of my left hand holding the wheel.

i also feel like I’m always fighting against the lane keeping system. So much so that I just disable toe lane keeping all together. You can still use any of the three cruise control modes without the lane keeping on, and I feel more comfortable that way. Once I can let go of the wheel, and let BlueCruise take full control, that will be different, but for now, I just steer for myself.

 

[zhackwyatt]

Just turn lane centering off. Normal cruise control will be yours.

 

[BMT1071]

I appreciate the replies! As I said in my original post, I’m not looking to drive hands free (yet), I just wanted to make sure I’d be able to use this cruise like I’ve always used cruise... with my left elbow on the armrest and a couple few fingers of my left hand holding the wheel.

There's also a difference between lane keep and lane centering. The MME will steer more actively with centering on. With just keep on it won't do much of anything until you start to drift out of your lane.

 

[JMCH]

So, exactly what must I do to be able to use the cruise with nothing more than a light touch on the wheel? Sorry for being obtuse, but we don’t have our MME yet, so I’m kinda flying blind here. Other than this forum, is there a way to get fully up to speed on all the car’s features & settings? As I posted in another area of this forum, we are very disappointed with the lack of knowledge at the dealership.

 

[BMT1071]

So, exactly what must I do to be able to use the cruise with nothing more than a light touch on the wheel? Sorry for being obtuse, but we don’t have our MME yet, so I’m kinda flying blind here. Other than this forum, is there a way to get fully up to speed on all the car’s features & settings? As I posted in another area of this forum, we are very disappointed with the lack of knowledge at the dealership.

What are you driving as a comparison? Both adaptive and intelligent cruise can be used without the keep or centering options turned on. AFAIK there is no spec for how much resistance to steering wheel rotation the system is looking for, so 'light touch' is totally subjective.

 

[JMCH]

Right... that is subjective. I guess just resting a few fingers on the wheel, same as I would with a car that can’t ‘feel’ whether or not I’m touching the wheel. My point of reference is any car with an old ‘dumb’ cruise control system. This whole concern of mine will almost definitely be easily resolved once I get my grubby little mitts on our own MME!

 

[Jimrpa]

My recommendation: drive the car the way you normally do and you’ll quickly learn if that’s going to work for you, or if you’ll have to make some adjustments (like maybe using some more fingers ?) to accommodate the car ?

 

[Murse-In-Airy]

Right... that is subjective. I guess just resting a few fingers on the wheel, same as I would with a car that can’t ‘feel’ whether or not I’m touching the wheel. My point of reference is any car with an old ‘dumb’ cruise control system. This whole concern of mine will almost definitely be easily resolved once I get my grubby little mitts on our own MME!

To be totally honest, I cock my leg up and rest my knee against the wheel. That causes resistance as the wheel makes the small corrections without binding it enough to prevent the lane centering from negotiating corners. Then I can use as light or heavy a touch as I care to with my hand/hands as my knee is preventing the car from feeling like it isn’t being resisted. If I need to move my foot down to the brake or accelerator, then I can guarantee I’m taking more positive control with my hands anyway.

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