My Assessment of BlueCruise

[phil]

It is picky about keeping the hands on wheel: it wants 2 firm hands

One hand works for me.

 

[Ming]

I use BC whenever I can (good portiy of my city highways have handsfree enabled). But I have at least 4 times BC suddenly lost track of lane (a red large rectangle warning showed up on driver's display, but I never had time to read what text in it). Each time I had to take control immediately to avoid collision. Twice were in construction zone, but the car still enabled BC.

 

[JellyBelly]

I use BC whenever I can (good portiy of my city highways have handsfree enabled). But I have at least 4 times BC suddenly lost track of lane (a red large rectangle warning showed up on driver's display, but I never had time to read what text in it). Each time I had to take control immediately to avoid collision. Twice were in construction zone, but the car still enabled BC.

The red triangle is telling you to pay attention … the triangles are warning type messages to ask the driver to resume control

 

[RobbertPatrison]

Everything you wrote except the part I bold underlined is just the standard CoPilot360 suite of driver assistance features. The only thing BlueCruise adds is the hands-free bit. A lot of people (probably who had BlueCruise enabled from the start) don’t understand this.

That might seem like semantics, but you can get all these features for free once your BlueCruise subscription expires. Your subscription (already rolled into the increased price of the car) will expire in three years if the car came with BC pre-installed. For those of us early adopters who bought 2021 Job 1 cars without BC pre-installed, Ford is giving us a one-year trial subscription.

Also, you don’t have BC on local roads. What you are seeing is the standard CP360 “BB8 Bubble.” It’s only BC when the whole screen goes blue and you see the Hands Free wheel symbol. What May have you confused is sometimes you’ll get a pop up saying “BlueCruise is active” or some such message while on local roads. It isn’t. That’s a bug I’ve noticed.

Thanks for the clarification. I Indeed did not realize that. BC was in my MME from the beginning. Ford made it confusing:

• None of the driver assist settings in the menu mention BlueCruise. The only thing is the license menu saying that BC is licensed until October 2022 (?!).
• On local roads a clunky message pops up on the Driver Info Display that BC is on. That is actually just hand-on lane keeping. Lane keeping on local roads seems to be no better than the lane departure warning I had in my Chevy Volt in 2012... It misses most markers...
• I see no indication that the system sees pedestrians or bikers. My 2017 Bolt would light up a small warning if a person was detected.
• The switch between hands-on and hands-off (BC) is too subtle and way, *way* too often. I have not been able to stay in hands-free BC for more that a few minutes at a time. Every time I'm being downgraded to hands-on lane centering, and 30 seconds later BC flips back on. There is no warning to keep the eye on the road.

So in all, BC is a glorified lane-keeper that does not yet work satisfactory on the busy and hilly Bay Area highways. It seems to be a work-in-progress on Ford's end. I did not expect a Tesla-level autopilot, but I am a little disappointed by the capabilities...

 

[Mirak]

Pardon the thread crap, but @Mirak what map is in your OP? I'd love to have the option for the built-in map to change the background to satellite or multi-colors.

That’s just Apple Maps using CarPlay.

 

[Ming]

The red triangle is telling you to pay attention … the triangles are warning type messages to ask the driver to resume control

It's not. I've seen plenty of "watch the road" warnings, but the one mentioned was not. The car lost tracking the lane, I had to take over immediately every time.
With the watch the road warnings, I just need to keep eyes on road, the car still under BC control.

The red rectangle also is bigger than watch the road warning, but I never had time to read the text.

 

[FLmac]

Someone posted a fantastic video a while back here that changed how I think of BC.

Just treat it like what it is: a drivers aid.

And not what it isn’t: full self driving

Don’t wait for the car to force you to take over, take over when you need to.

Example: you see brake lights 3 cars ahead. You shouldn’t wait for the car to emergency brake.

Treat it like what is is: intelligent cruise control + lane keeping assist + hands free.

So in your example of an on-ramp, would you still be using cruise control at that point?

I wouldn’t. So any time lane keep or ICC would be off, BC should be off as well.

Basically it’s awesome for boring sections of the road or stop and go traffic. The same places you’d use ICC.

And if you don’t treat it like a toy or parlor trick, it’ll work great for what it is.

I‘ve had a job 2 car for 2 months. I honestly thought I’d never use BC. I drive 21 miles to/from work on I-4 in FL, which is universally known as the most dangerous highway in the country due to the number of accidents. I swear people are either staring at their phones or suddenly realize they have no idea where they’re going or why they are on the road. I also came out of a car that had regular old cruise control. I think my expectations were low.

I love BC and use it every chance I get. I don’t treat it as full self driving. I keep my eyes on the road. I regularly brake when I feel I need to slow down faster then reengage BC at the new lower speed and allow it to speed back up. I will adjust the lane keeping based on surrounding vehicles and comfort level. I find the middl level is best and lane keeping. I also find I speed less when using it. I’ve never set it over 80 and I used to drive regularly over that.

 

[Kitten]

I agree, BC is pretty much glorified cruise control plus lane assist. I don't trust it much, it has no awareness of cars that are too close to the line in other lanes, and it's very jerky when navigating even the slightest curve in the road. Still, it's a better driver than I am so I let it do its thing when I'm on the highway.

 

[Ming]

The red triangle is telling you to pay attention … the triangles are warning type messages to ask the driver to resume control

I'm 100% sure it's not. I've seen plenty of warning for watch the road and hands on wheel. the rectangle thing I mentioned was totally different - a very large one, red outline with something inside that I never had time to read! the car was drifting out of lane immediately, there's no time to read the warning but had to take over in 0.1 second!

 

[Timmy]

I use it every day for about 15 miles each way on I-40/TN-95 on my way to work. It works Ok on the interstate unless it is approaching a junction, and it stops working. On the other roads, I keep one hand on the wheel and it works just fine. It is a driving aid, a glorified cruise control.

 

[MachJack]

I purchased my 2022 about 3 weeks ago and it came with the BlueCruise installed. I have a 75 mile commute and have been using the hands free fairly often. I agree with nearly all the OP says except I experienced a great deal of ping ponging at the beginning. My wife actually felt seasick on our first test drive. However, that has improved. I wonder if it has AI and is learning? It's still not as good as manual at staying steady, but it's not a noticeable bother anymore and so bluecruise is an option.

I just want to underscore the point that it is VERY CONSERVATIVE. I don't understand why this is so. These systems have been tested to perform superior to manual driving. So why is the eye nanny so sensitive? I can't look at the info screen or my partner or out the side windows nearly as much as I do when I'm driving. Does Ford plan to loosen up after a test period? My dream would be to get my emails done on the way to work.

 

[MachJack]

Well I was just doing a little experimenting with BC. Something I've noticed:

If you notice the car getting a little close to one side (like say it veers towards a truck to your right) and you nudge the wheel a bit to the left to get the car away from the line and hold it there for a bit (yeah all the while the dash says "hands free"). When you let go of the wheel the car will turn back to the right and then yell at you to take control because it over corrected and is now too close to the line.

Once I noticed this I tried it a few times (with no trucks present LOL) and I could get it to repeat the behavior.

I agree with this. When I'm driving I naturally pull a bit to the side of the lane away from large trucks, to just give them a bit more room since they take the entire lane. The hands-free does not. In fact, it seems to veer closer to the truck side of the lane. I"m constantly fighting it to give a bit more space. It's a problem.

 

[MachJack]

Sorry if I missed this here or elsewhere. If we don't like BC can you just use lane centering and hand nanny? Not sure if you call it ICC or CP360. TIA

Yes you can just use the lane centering, but you have to turn off the adaptive cruise control. If you have adaptive cruise on, the BC kicks in. (I think this is true. Tomorrow I'll see if there's a switch to just turn off BC.)

 

[Ming]

I'm 100% sure it's not. I've seen plenty of warning for watch the road and hands on wheel. the rectangle thing I mentioned was totally different - a very large one, red outline with something inside that I never had time to read! the car was drifting out of lane immediately, there's no time to read the warning but had to take over in 0.1 second!

okay, it happens much often now, even on road I drive every day. there are two warnings, one is with text "RESUME CONTROL". the other is just symbol, looks like /o\ the cycle is steering wheel with hands on it, while the 2 lines could be either both red, or one green one red, showing the car can't track lane boundaries any more. this warning comes along with fast beeping. this one often is followed by the 2nd "RESUME CONTROL".