Totally wonderful automobile; buy one now!

[ChasingCoral]

Wait... lane cenering won't work on a two way road with clear lane markings? That's mostly what I travel and I try to avoid highways. I tend to want lane centering on 60 MPH rural roads where the traffic is minimal: just to rest my hands/arms for a bit.

Mike

Works fine for me on well-marked 2-lane roads.

Sponsored

 

[lweisenthal]

Now back to the great garage clean up so I can fit both cars

Here in CA, few homes have basements; so many of us turn our garages into cluttered grade level basements. New car is a huge motivation to finally toss our accumulated junk.

Larry W/HB

 

[Lola2004]

Well, that was unexpected. Allow me to explain.

Thanks entirely to information received on this Forum, I decided not to wait for the car I'd ordered from Ford back on Jan 2 (projected build date April 2). I went online and found that my local dealer (Huntington Beach Ford) had what looked like a gadzillion of them -- either on the lot or actually in transit.

So, what the heck. Typically gorgeous Spring day in Surf City USA. What better way to spend it than kicking tires on Mustangs (not only can one have "Fun/Fun/Fun" in a T-Bird, I know from prior experience that said "fun" can be had also in a Mustang).

Took my hot girlfriend (wife of 51 years; married her at age 19) to the dealer lot. I think I counted 8 (might have been 9) electric 'Stangs. Gleaming in that warm California sun, just a couple miles or so up Beach Blvd from the most dependable surf in the lower 48.

Couple hours later, drove off in a RWD, standard range Premium, Infinity Blue. Just gorgeous.

I'll get the only negatives out of the way at the beginning. $895 for admittedly cool electronic license plate. (You can instantly change the display to read "Stolen Car"). Sales agent said I had to get it, because the car was from a prior customer like me -- guy who ordered the car a year ago but decided he couldn't wait and bought a car off the lot, thus bequeathing "his" car to me. Yeah, a better negotiator could certainly have saved themself $895 by insisting on a conventional plate, but, as noted, it was a perfectly lovely day and why ruin it by playing the hardball negotiation game.

Second negative was not figuring out how to get the Ford Pass app on my iPhone to work. Heck, I'm just a technomunchkin Boomer. I'll eventually figure it out.

Anyway, drove it off the lot, then almost immediately did a 130 mile up and back round trip between Huntington Beach and Loma Linda, on the notorious 91, by way of the 405 and 55, and finishing up on the 215. Orange County bros know the route.

On the outbound trip, I became pretty decent at running the Co-Pilot 360. The way back was simply sublime. Allow me to explain in some detail.

I've related elsewhere that I'm by nature a pretty typical SoCal male driver. Minimum 10 MPH over speed limit. Frequent lane changes (to the left and to the right) ... darting and weaving to find open road ahead. Why do this? Because it's so darned unpleasant driving on SoCal freeways that we all just want the darned trip to be over. It was like surgery in the years prior to anesthesia. The only way to limit the pain is to shorten the procedure.

Here's what I did for the 65 mile trip back to the coast. Got into the number 4 lane (of a 5 lane freeway - in other words in the lane next to the "slow lane" - let's call it the penultimate slow lane ("PSL").

Activated the Co-Pilot 360 adaptive cruise control and lane center assist (after having customized the settings for maximum safety -- there are myriad choices; it's worthwhile figuring how this works and configuring it how you want). Then set the speed to 55 and turned to 60s on 6 on satellite radio, playing over the upgraded sound system which comes standard with the Premium trim. Had both steering wheel and seat heaters on comfortable settings (more on this below). I'd dropped off my wife in Loma Linda, where she's doing a grandma thing. So I could play whatever I wanted as loud as I wanted on the sound system.

The trip home was utterly amazing and utterly wonderful. The car literally drove itself all the way from my entrance point on the 215 to my street exit off the 22 (different route home) on Bolsa Chica. 55 freeway miles at 55 MPH. I had to do exactly nothing, save get the car in the correct lane for the freeway connector changes. Traffic was as usual for off peak ... quite busy, but mostly flowing, with only typical slowdowns for rubber neckers and what all. Car took care of everything. Adjusted speed, Maintained distance. Didn't sideswipe anything. Tracked brilliantly.

Aside, CA freeways - at least those well maintained - are practically perfect for automatic driving. The road stripes are clear and distinct and we've got these above grade reflectors called "Botts Dots," which are often not feasible to install in places where it snows and roads must be plowed, as the road graders tend to scrape off the Botts Dots. But I digress ...

Anyway, after a bit, I just zoned out. Fingers lightly on the wheel. It's an experience like holding hands with your girl. The soft curve of the warm (heated steering wheel) wheel against the fingers. As the wheel smoothly adjusts itself to maintain centering, it presents something quit akin to gently sqeezing your girlfriend's hand, and getting rewarding squeezes in return. With good music and a non-rush hour traffic flow, the car actually becomes alive. It comforts you and even caresses you, as you float gently down the road.

I wouldn't want to be in traffic going 70 or 75, much less 80, entrusting man and machine entirely to Co-Pilot, but at 55, I felt perfectly comfortable in so doing. Yeah, going 55 instead of 70 added 15 min to my trip, but who cares? It was so ... pleasant. Like the difference between surgery without anesthesia and a massage. Great, just great.

Couple important things. I read where one guy thought he'd crash, when his MME seemingly ignored lane markers and headed straight for the K-rail median. Don't know what happened to him, but I quickly figured out that you want to do two things when changing lanes. First, put on your turn signal; so the system knows that you are going to be changing lanes and which way you are planning on going. Secondly, once in the lane turn off the turn signal ! Until you turn it off, you have total responsibility for staying in your lane.

Second thing is that, at least for me, the lane centering only worked on the freeways. I think that might be because the full functionality of lane assist requires that one drive on the 100,000 miles or so of pre-mapped highways. When I exited the 22 onto Bolsa Chica South, the surface street was very well striped, once I got past Westminster Ave yet the lane assist totally ignored the lane markings and wanted me to crash into the Bird of Paradise plants (lovely) in the boulevard median. I spared the Birds by assuming control of the steering.

What *did* work ... brilliantly, on the surface streets was the adaptive cruise control. I'd never before considered using cruise control on surface streets, but this was an amazing experience. Just set the cruise control for the speed limit, chose to maximize the distance to the vehicle ahead, and let the car take care of the rest. All I had to do was to steer and, at times when I came to a complete stop, hit the little "resume" icon button on the steering wheel, while giving it a tiny bit of "gas," with the accelerator. Just telling the car, OK, you've had a brief rest, now back on the job. Car basically took care of the continually changing traffic flow ... quickly braking when a typical SoCal ICE driver cut me off. But my blood pressure didn't rise, as it normally does when someone cuts me off. Co-Pilot was the one being stressed, not me.

When I got home, I was delighted to find that the 240 cord I'd installed years earlier to charge up our Chevy Volt worked just fine for the MME. Didn't have to unwrap and deploy the nice new cord which came with the MME.

One thing, I was frankly amazed at how large was the car, sitting in the driveway next to the Volt. The MME doesn't look all that big in all those Youtube videos. Like, I wondered why on earth they called it an "SUV." But it does deserve the moniker. It's surprisingly large. Really spacious, roomy inside. My wife and I are still at our high school weights, and her first comment was "these are fat people seats." No offense intended to anyone, but I'm pretty sure that even our ex-President would be OK with the ride.

Really, great, great car. Exceeded what had been high expectations. Maybe the roof will collapse the next time I drive it, but so far so good.

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA

Congratulations on the ride, used to live in your area so great to hear it handled all so well

 

[zhackwyatt]

I've related elsewhere that I'm by nature a pretty typical SoCal male driver. Minimum 10 MPH over speed limit. Frequent lane changes (to the left and to the right) ... darting and weaving to find open road ahead.

So your that guy that almost side swipes me on the freeway? Thanks.

 

[UW2]

Well, that was unexpected. Allow me to explain.

Thanks entirely to information received on this Forum, I decided not to wait for the car I'd ordered from Ford back on Jan 2 (projected build date April 2). I went online and found that my local dealer (Huntington Beach Ford) had what looked like a gadzillion of them -- either on the lot or actually in transit.

So, what the heck. Typically gorgeous Spring day in Surf City USA. What better way to spend it than kicking tires on Mustangs (not only can one have "Fun/Fun/Fun" in a T-Bird, I know from prior experience that said "fun" can be had also in a Mustang).

Took my hot girlfriend (wife of 51 years; married her at age 19) to the dealer lot. I think I counted 8 (might have been 9) electric 'Stangs. Gleaming in that warm California sun, just a couple miles or so up Beach Blvd from the most dependable surf in the lower 48.

Couple hours later, drove off in a RWD, standard range Premium, Infinity Blue. Just gorgeous.

I'll get the only negatives out of the way at the beginning. $895 for admittedly cool electronic license plate. (You can instantly change the display to read "Stolen Car"). Sales agent said I had to get it, because the car was from a prior customer like me -- guy who ordered the car a year ago but decided he couldn't wait and bought a car off the lot, thus bequeathing "his" car to me. Yeah, a better negotiator could certainly have saved themself $895 by insisting on a conventional plate, but, as noted, it was a perfectly lovely day and why ruin it by playing the hardball negotiation game.

Second negative was not figuring out how to get the Ford Pass app on my iPhone to work. Heck, I'm just a technomunchkin Boomer. I'll eventually figure it out.

Anyway, drove it off the lot, then almost immediately did a 130 mile up and back round trip between Huntington Beach and Loma Linda, on the notorious 91, by way of the 405 and 55, and finishing up on the 215. Orange County bros know the route.

On the outbound trip, I became pretty decent at running the Co-Pilot 360. The way back was simply sublime. Allow me to explain in some detail.

I've related elsewhere that I'm by nature a pretty typical SoCal male driver. Minimum 10 MPH over speed limit. Frequent lane changes (to the left and to the right) ... darting and weaving to find open road ahead. Why do this? Because it's so darned unpleasant driving on SoCal freeways that we all just want the darned trip to be over. It was like surgery in the years prior to anesthesia. The only way to limit the pain is to shorten the procedure.

Here's what I did for the 65 mile trip back to the coast. Got into the number 4 lane (of a 5 lane freeway - in other words in the lane next to the "slow lane" - let's call it the penultimate slow lane ("PSL").

Activated the Co-Pilot 360 adaptive cruise control and lane center assist (after having customized the settings for maximum safety -- there are myriad choices; it's worthwhile figuring how this works and configuring it how you want). Then set the speed to 55 and turned to 60s on 6 on satellite radio, playing over the upgraded sound system which comes standard with the Premium trim. Had both steering wheel and seat heaters on comfortable settings (more on this below). I'd dropped off my wife in Loma Linda, where she's doing a grandma thing. So I could play whatever I wanted as loud as I wanted on the sound system.

The trip home was utterly amazing and utterly wonderful. The car literally drove itself all the way from my entrance point on the 215 to my street exit off the 22 (different route home) on Bolsa Chica. 55 freeway miles at 55 MPH. I had to do exactly nothing, save get the car in the correct lane for the freeway connector changes. Traffic was as usual for off peak ... quite busy, but mostly flowing, with only typical slowdowns for rubber neckers and what all. Car took care of everything. Adjusted speed, Maintained distance. Didn't sideswipe anything. Tracked brilliantly.

Aside, CA freeways - at least those well maintained - are practically perfect for automatic driving. The road stripes are clear and distinct and we've got these above grade reflectors called "Botts Dots," which are often not feasible to install in places where it snows and roads must be plowed, as the road graders tend to scrape off the Botts Dots. But I digress ...

Anyway, after a bit, I just zoned out. Fingers lightly on the wheel. It's an experience like holding hands with your girl. The soft curve of the warm (heated steering wheel) wheel against the fingers. As the wheel smoothly adjusts itself to maintain centering, it presents something quit akin to gently sqeezing your girlfriend's hand, and getting rewarding squeezes in return. With good music and a non-rush hour traffic flow, the car actually becomes alive. It comforts you and even caresses you, as you float gently down the road.

I wouldn't want to be in traffic going 70 or 75, much less 80, entrusting man and machine entirely to Co-Pilot, but at 55, I felt perfectly comfortable in so doing. Yeah, going 55 instead of 70 added 15 min to my trip, but who cares? It was so ... pleasant. Like the difference between surgery without anesthesia and a massage. Great, just great.

Couple important things. I read where one guy thought he'd crash, when his MME seemingly ignored lane markers and headed straight for the K-rail median. Don't know what happened to him, but I quickly figured out that you want to do two things when changing lanes. First, put on your turn signal; so the system knows that you are going to be changing lanes and which way you are planning on going. Secondly, once in the lane turn off the turn signal ! Until you turn it off, you have total responsibility for staying in your lane.

Second thing is that, at least for me, the lane centering only worked on the freeways. I think that might be because the full functionality of lane assist requires that one drive on the 100,000 miles or so of pre-mapped highways. When I exited the 22 onto Bolsa Chica South, the surface street was very well striped, once I got past Westminster Ave yet the lane assist totally ignored the lane markings and wanted me to crash into the Bird of Paradise plants (lovely) in the boulevard median. I spared the Birds by assuming control of the steering.

What *did* work ... brilliantly, on the surface streets was the adaptive cruise control. I'd never before considered using cruise control on surface streets, but this was an amazing experience. Just set the cruise control for the speed limit, chose to maximize the distance to the vehicle ahead, and let the car take care of the rest. All I had to do was to steer and, at times when I came to a complete stop, hit the little "resume" icon button on the steering wheel, while giving it a tiny bit of "gas," with the accelerator. Just telling the car, OK, you've had a brief rest, now back on the job. Car basically took care of the continually changing traffic flow ... quickly braking when a typical SoCal ICE driver cut me off. But my blood pressure didn't rise, as it normally does when someone cuts me off. Co-Pilot was the one being stressed, not me.

When I got home, I was delighted to find that the 240 cord I'd installed years earlier to charge up our Chevy Volt worked just fine for the MME. Didn't have to unwrap and deploy the nice new cord which came with the MME.

One thing, I was frankly amazed at how large was the car, sitting in the driveway next to the Volt. The MME doesn't look all that big in all those Youtube videos. Like, I wondered why on earth they called it an "SUV." But it does deserve the moniker. It's surprisingly large. Really spacious, roomy inside. My wife and I are still at our high school weights, and her first comment was "these are fat people seats." No offense intended to anyone, but I'm pretty sure that even our ex-President would be OK with the ride.

Really, great, great car. Exceeded what had been high expectations. Maybe the roof will collapse the next time I drive it, but so far so good.

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach CA

Wow, you must write for a living!

 

[Ponypower50]

A few of us in Illinois love our Mach e's also, but just can't charge them on 240v charger.

 

[lweisenthal]

Wow, you must write for a living!

Oncologist who Tweets a lot. Thanks .... I think.

 

[mburtsvt]

I was driving on a suburban surface street that’s a bit like a highway, but isn’t a highway. Bolsa Chica is 4 lanes with extra turning lanes and a boulevard median. It’s got a huge Naval station with no entrance roads on one side and a currently empty decommissioned Boeing plant on the other, with a 50 MPH speed limit. Well striped lanes. But lane centering, which had performed so brilliantly on the Freeways, didn’t work at all.

My supposition is that it only works properly on pre mapped actual highways. Maybe Tiger Woods crashed because the Palos Verdes road on which Tiger was driving (Hawthorne Blvd) was similar to Bolsa Chica, in being a well striped road which bears similarities to a highway, but isn’t a highway. The Hyundai he was driving was of a similar class to the MME, to wit (from a news report):

“The 2021 Genesis GV80 carries a starting price of nearly $50,000. It has a 14.5-inch horizontal touchscreen on the center console and an 8-inch digital instrument panel. It has 10 airbags, a forward-collision warning system, evasive steering technology and an interior camera that alerts the driver if they’re falling asleep.

“The GV80, which has earned plaudits from critics for its design, competes with vehicles like the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Mercedes GLE, BMW X5 and Lincoln Aviator. It is offered in two- or three-row versions.”

Tiger had been driving the car for several days. Might have been sufficiently acquainted with its features to be relying on them.

Whatever, I think the moral is to be certain that whatever road on which one is driving supports the full functionality of whatever automated driving system one might wish to use.

- Larry Weisenthal/Huntington Beach

From your post - "My supposition is that it only works properly on pre mapped actual highways." Nope: that has nothing to do with "lane centering". It's the markings in the road that the cameras see. When the Ford Co-Pilot360 Active 2.0 Prep Package was added to you car, (assuming you have it - its an option on some Mach E selects), you will be able to download, (when available) the "Active Drive Assist" which is the level 1 driving app for the Mach e. More info and a better explanation here..... https://www.carsdirect.com/automoti...-2-0-technology-to-premiere-on-mustang-mach-e

 

[lweisenthal]

From your post - "My supposition is that it only works properly on pre mapped actual highways." Nope: that has nothing to do with "lane centering". It's the markings in the road that the cameras see. When the Ford Co-Pilot360 Active 2.0 Prep Package was added to you car, (assuming you have it - its an option on some Mach E selects), you will be able to download, (when available) the "Active Drive Assist" which is the level 1 driving app for the Mach e. More info and a better explanation here..... https://www.carsdirect.com/automoti...-2-0-technology-to-premiere-on-mustang-mach-e

Thanks! I had originally ordered a Select with the Tech prep package. Includes full C360 hardware. But car I ended up getting was a RWD Premium. I’ll do some more 1st person research on lane centering in my vehicle. We all realize it’s important to know how this works, where it works, and when it works. Larry W/HB

 

[mdolan92869]

Be glad you took those routes. I went from Orange along the 22 to the 405 yesterday so I could "go see Cal" in Long Beach, Reverse route home. Construction along the 405 in Los Alamitos has lane markings everywhere. I just took the wheel and drove it myself to get the feel of the car. Going to try all the fancy stuff later.

Congrats on the new toy!

 

[mburtsvt]

Thanks! I had originally ordered a Select with the Tech prep package. Includes full C360 hardware. But car I ended up getting was a RWD Premium. I’ll do some more 1st person research on lane centering in my vehicle. We all realize it’s important to know how this works, where it works, and when it works. Larry W/HB

Good news...all Premium's come with the Co-Pilot360 Active 2.0 Prep Package! Hopefully you got the $100 credit for when the Active Drive Assist, (download by Summer - fingers crossed). It will have the "Map" feature similar to GM's "Active Cruse" product. Of course you will have to kick down an additional $500 for the download - but you have all of the hardware you need to use it.

 

[Mickey the T]

Well, dang if this post wasn't the most interesting thing I've read on the internet this past week. Thanks for sharing and the entertaining writing. And since you came home with the same color/model that I have on order...what color interior do you have? I have the light color on order, but it's the one thing that I keep vacillating on.

And I echo the comment about the 405 freeway in Los Alamitos--when driving that stretch last weekend I thought "there is no technology that could ever track these lanes..."

 

[lweisenthal]

From your post - "My supposition is that it only works properly on pre mapped actual highways." Nope: that has nothing to do with "lane centering". It's the markings in the road that the cameras see.

MYSTERY SOLVED! Lane centering is only available to be turned “on” while adaptive cruise control is running. When I exited the 22 to go South on Bolsa Chica, I initially turned off adaptive cruise control, because I was no longer on a freeway. Then I wanted to see if lane centering would work on a well marked surface street. Fail, as initially described.

Then, duly annoyed, I for fun turned adaptive cruise control back on. This worked brilliantly on the surface street, again, as described. But I then didn’t re-try lane centering. I’m now going right back out on the same section of Bolsa Chica to try this.

But meanwhile ... important message. According to the MME official directions, Lane Centering only works when Adaptive Cruise Control is operating.

Larry W/HB

 

[SteveUk]

Great review Larry

 

[capt_jak_harkness]

MYSTERY SOLVED! Lane centering is only available to be turned “on” while adaptive cruise control is running. When I exited the 22 to go South on Bolsa Chica, I initially turned off adaptive cruise control, because I was no longer on a freeway. Then I wanted to see if lane centering would work on a well marked surface street. Fail, as initially described.

Then, duly annoyed, I for fun turned adaptive cruise control back on. This worked brilliantly on the surface street, again, as described. But I then didn’t re-try lane centering. I’m now going right back out on the same section of Bolsa Chica to try this.

But meanwhile ... important message. According to the MME official directions, Lane Centering only works when Adaptive Cruise Control is operating.

Larry W/HB

Just as an FYI, which you might already know, you are correct that lane centering is only on when Adaptive Cruise control is also on, but you can keep lane keeping assist on at all times. Just remember that this is not like lane centering: it won't keep you in the middle of the lane, it will just assist you so you don't go outside the lane. So you'll still need to primarily do the centering.

I turned off the lane assist warning, and just have aid on at all times. I like seeing the green lines.

Also, someone else in this thread mentioned that even after the paid summer OTA to unlock 2.0 it won't be hands off, but I thought I read that it will be. Right?

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