RMoore

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Interesting thread. I imagine one can only really understand these various options after owning and driving the car for a while (which likely won't be for another 6+ months in my case), but is there a good single resource one can turn to to help understand what BC offers on top of the features available with the advanced cruise control settings? It sounds like BC overrides cruise control while enabled (or in some way utilizes it), and allows for the car to control more things but it's hard to get a handle on exactly what it does differently compared to the cruise control options.
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what BC offers on top of the features available with the advanced cruise control settings
By your listed cars it appears you have an Audi Q5. If your Audi has adaptive cruise with lane assist, the Ford BC is the combination of those two systems with the ability to keep your hands off of the wheel, whereas with the Audi you must keep a finger or knee or something touching the wheel.

There's things that each company does different. Audi for example wont disengage for small radius corners, it also wont resume ACC when at a complete stop for more than 2 seconds. Ford will disengage BC on small radius corners but it will also resume from a complete stop. There's going to be pros and cons to each system and brand. My hope is that Ford can grow from these minor issues and make a better system for us all. That being said, if you commute to work in a lot of stop and go traffic, Ford BC will be amazing (requires a BC zone of course). If you do a lot of highway driving, personally I would prefer Audi's system.

If you have any specific questions and feel like it would be too burdensome to ask in the forum just DM me! I'm always open to a good conversation and don't mind answering as many questions as you might have.
 
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For everyone watching this thread that doesn't have BC yet, here's one other thing that I want to point out. Once you get BC all of the non-BC driving modes using cruise control will require your eyes on the road.

For example, when I am on a non-BC road with just adaptive enabled the system will still monitor my eye movement and bug me if I'm looking away for too long.

Based on my reading from other forum posts this isn't the case until you get the BC option.
 

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By your listed cars it appears you have an Audi Q5. If your Audi has adaptive cruise with lane assist, the Ford BC is the combination of those two systems with the ability to keep your hands off of the wheel, whereas with the Audi you must keep a finger or knee or something touching the wheel.

There's things that each company does different. Audi for example wont disengage for small radius corners, it also wont resume ACC when at a complete stop for more than 2 seconds. Ford will disengage BC on small radius corners but it will also resume from a complete stop. There's going to be pros and cons to each system and brand. My hope is that Ford can grow from these minor issues and make a better system for us all. That being said, if you commute to work in a lot of stop and go traffic, Ford BC will be amazing (requires a BC zone of course). If you do a lot of highway driving, personally I would prefer Audi's system.

If you have any specific questions and feel like it would be too burdensome to ask in the forum just DM me! I'm always open to a good conversation and don't mind answering as many questions as you might have.
Thanks for the gracious offer to help via DM! Yes, I have a Q5 but it is a 2014 and I honestly don't know how its cruise control works since I never use it. I've really loved the Q5--best car I've owned (though that's not saying much since in my 40+ yrs of driving I've had lots of so-so cars). But I like the idea of some of the safety features that newer cars like the MME have, and I wanted to get an EV--the MME just struck as the best option given its features and price point and I loved my test drive. I'm interested in how things like lane centering etc work and so was trying to understand what BC offers in addition to (or instead of) the features incorporated into cruise control. As an aside, I was driving on the NJ Turnpike a few months ago at night in our minivan in a bad rainstorm and could barely see the lane markers. I was wondering if a more modern cruise control with lane centering would have made it less scary or at least safer.
 
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I'm interested in how things like lane centering etc work and so was trying to understand what BC offers in addition to (or instead of) the features incorporated into cruise control. As an aside, I was driving on the NJ Turnpike a few months ago at night in our minivan in a bad rainstorm and could barely see the lane markers. I was wondering if a more modern cruise control with lane centering would have made it less scary or at least safer.
Let me break it down for you since I've used these features for at least 5+ years in Audi and now in Ford.

BC is, as I mentioned, ACC and LA combined with hands free. That's really all it is at this point. It doesn't change lanes, it doesn't navigate for you, it just keeps the distance at the desired cruise speed, brakes when a car brakes, accelerates when they accelerate and holds you between the lines. These are all common features to Audi and other systems with Lane Assist and Adaptive Cruise. So to be a little more direct, at this point BC only offers hands free beyond the capabilities of ACC and LA.

As for the rainstorm ... I LOVE LOVE LOVE ACC in the fog because ACC can see beyond the fog. It requires trust in the car, which is hard for many people, but it works better than you can when you can't see. One of the reasons I think radar based or IR based ACC is far better than vision based (Tesla) is because of this. Vision based systems are limited to the same vision as the driver, while IR and Radar based systems can see through the elements.

Lane centering or lane assist is different between the brands as well. Ford (I believe - and someone can correct me if I'm wrong) only uses the markers in the road. Audi uses the car in front of you and the markers in the road. So if the markers in the road are gone or weak the system can disengage. My previous experience with Audi is that the lane assist system works well in the rain and would make your travels safer.
 
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Can't the different between BC and no BC be summed up in two words - hands free? BC doesn't add any capability except the ability to remove one's hands from the steering wheel (for more than a few seconds like you can without BC).
 
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Can't the different between BC and no BC be summed up in two words - hands free?
Yes, however I think some people may assume it does more, such as FSD and for other's they may not understand what it includes. There was another comment about how Ford has made cruise control options confusing with 3 versions which I feel is similar in nature.

So I suggest a better summed up version would be

BC = ACC + LC + Hands Free
 

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But what if you want to see the speed limit on the dash but don’t want the car to act on it?
I can confirm on a trip to Starbucks that the speed still displays on the driver's display despite the poorly worded toggle switch. Now... If this is coming from reading the sign vs map data i don't know until I pass through a construction zone or something out of the ordinary.
 

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Thanks for the write up. Lots of great info here to help me prepare for what to expect and what settings to tweak when I get my car in a few weeks.

2.7 mi/kWh doesn’t seem that bad for 80 mph highway driving. That still exceeds the GTPE’s original range estimate of 235 miles, so it seems like it’s new 260 mile rating could be achievable at 70-75 mph. A lot of EVs can’t get close to their EPA ratings with all highway driving so I’m happy with that result.
 
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BC = ACC + LC + Hands Free
That's very helpful. I guess I'll first see how much I use cruise control and then decide on BC given that I've been driving for several decades without CC. I'm pretty used to having my hands on the wheel so I'm not sure what the benefit would be for being able to take them off, other than perhaps stretching some muscles or just relaxing my shoulders for a bit while still keeping my eyes on the road.
 
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I'm pretty used to having my hands on the wheel
ACC and BC are definitely something that you have to get used to and embrace. I'm in my late 30s and both my parents have ACC in their cars and both refuse to use it. My grandmother who is 92, and still plays golf BTW, uses ACC in her Audi and loves it on long trips.
 

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ACC and BC are definitely something that you have to get used to and embrace. I'm in my late 30s and both my parents have ACC in their cars and both refuse to use it. My grandmother who is 92, and still plays golf BTW, uses ACC in her Audi and loves it on long trips.
I imagine I'll get there at some point. I figure I will probably do things in the following order:
  1. Get used to driving the new car in whisper mode and learn the interface.
  2. Try out one pedal driving
  3. Figure out the various driving modes: there seem to be quite a few permutations that affect what happens when you take your foot off the accelerator depending on (whisper/engaged/unbridled) x (one pedal on/off) x (L/D gear) x auto hold on/off. I realize that it's not that many and that some of these states end up being the same, but still a bit dizzying to read about.
  4. Experiment with ACC and LC.
 
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@RMoore don't let it get to you. I feel like you might be over thinking it all. Other than the piped in fake noise, the drive modes in the GT just don't do much.

One pedal driving will be very different at first, but it becomes second nature quickly.

I think L mode is kinda dumb... Auto hold I disabled. Be careful going into a car wash with auto hold on. It will prevent the car from moving unless it's disabled or you push L while in N. Another strange thing about auto hold is that when you get good at one pedal driving you don't use the brake meaning that auto hold doesn't engage anyway. The car doesn't roll even with auto hold off.
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