Which ADAS mode do you usually use?

[apwelsh]

Curious which ADAS steering mode you usually use. Choose the mode you spend most amount of time in. Here are photos if you don't know what the terms mean:

1. BlueCruise / Lane Centering Active (Level 2)

Lane centering is fully active and continuously provides cooperate steering inputs to actively keep the vehicle centered in the lane. Cruise control must be engaged.

2. Cruise OFF with Lane-Keeping Aid only (Level 1)

Lane-keeping aid and/or alert only. The parenthesis/bars on either side of the car are present, and turn orange or red when you cross lines. If there are no lane lines, the bars will be gray. Steering assistance is only applied if you hit or cross a line. Car will "ping pong" off lane lines in this mode if the driver isn't actively steering.

3. Lane-Keeping/Centering fully OFF (Level 0)

No steering assistance is provided whatsoever, not even when you cross lines. Cruise control may still be active, but steering support is disabled with the button on the steering wheel.

I drive mode 2 and mode 1x. Freeways, almost always mode 2. When I had blue cruise. I liked the hands free option, but hands on in ready mode is almost just as good.

 

[apwelsh]

Same. The closest BC highway is 30 min from my house and definitely not a part of my daily commute.

Kinda surprised by the poll results so far. I didn’t think that many people live so close to a BC highway.

You don’t need a BC highway for what the OP asked for. Mode 2, as depicted isn’t actually blue cruise. It’s dynamic cruise control + lane keeping assist. This mode works on any road that the car can see the lane lines on, to a certain degree. Bluecruise would be a mode 3, hands free. That is when you need a bluecruise highway. When the image shows ready, we get that regardless of the blue cruise subscription. It is only the hands free mode where the car can change lanes on its own, and you can take hands off the wheel (but continue to look at the road) is blue cruise (the subscription service) engaged, and the service restricted to BC approved highways.

update: I just noticed there were two image of Level 2, which included both the hands free blue cruise, and the ready mode that doesn’t require blue this, but is still self driving. Probably why your see so many level 2 votes. People like me that don’t have or use blue cruise hands free but do use lane keeping + dynamic cruise control

 

[Mach-Lee]

You don’t need a BC highway for what the OP asked for. Mode 2, as depicted isn’t actually blue cruise. It’s dynamic cruise control + lane keeping assist. This mode works on any road that the car can see the lane lines on, to a certain degree. Bluecruise would be a mode 3, hands free. That is when you need a bluecruise highway. When the image shows ready, we get that regardless of the blue cruise subscription. It is only the hands free mode where the car can change lanes on its own, and you can take hands off the wheel (but continue to look at the road) is blue cruise (the subscription service) engaged, and the service restricted to BC approved highways.

Yes you can use lane centering (Level 2) on unmapped roads as long as there are lane lines.

FYI hands-free BlueCruise is considered Level 2+. It is not Level 3 because it requires you to watch the road at all times.

 

[dbsb3233]

You may just need more practice to get more comfortable with it.

I find myself using BC, but keeping my hands on the wheel.

It just makes driving……easier. Just like anti-lock brakes, cruise control, blind spot monitoring, cross traffic alert, crash avoidance, etc they are driving AIDS not driver REPLACEMENTS.

If keeping hands on the wheel all the time, I'd agree. That's not hands-free, it's still pretty much steering full-time but allowing the LC to correct you if you drift too much. I have done it that way a few times, most notably for an all-night emergency drive home from AZ in the middle of a road trip. It was my "just in case I nod off" safety measure. I've tried it a few other times too (it's gotten better at times and worse at times with updates along the way), but for the most part I like the feel better with it off.

I'm probably a bit unique with how I usually hold the wheel on road trips though. I set my seat high and the wheel low so that my arms are resting in my lap where my hands can hold the wheel comfortably on the bottom while cruising. For those that hold their arms up higher all the time (with hours of arm and shoulder stress), I can see why they'd like auto-steering more.

 

[phil]

No self-steering for me, unless I just need to take my hands off the wheel to do something for 20 seconds when there's no cars near me. I'll use LC quickly for that.

To me, it's MORE stressful to have to still watch constantly like I'm steering but then stay on edge and ready to jump in and grab the wheel at any split second.

IMO, what self-steering really does is allows people to get complacent and NOT pay much attention anymore. So if something DOES goes wrong, they've deadened their reaction times and are less likely to correct in time. In other words, to do it RIGHT, it's more stressful; to so it WRONG, it's more dangerous.

So, no thanks.

Agree. I tried it, and it's cool. Automated lane change is a neat trick. But I think the technology is currently at a point where it reduces safety and increases driver stress (if the driver remains properly vigilant). Someday, automated steering will be helpful. But not yet.

 

[dwst480]

Maybe I'm misreading the options, but I feel like there's one missing for people who use cruise control (but not BlueCruise) and no lane centering. That's me.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Maybe I'm misreading the options, but I feel like there's one missing for people who use cruise control (but not BlueCruise) and no lane centering. That's me.

That would be level 0 - no steering aids.

 

[dbsb3233]

Maybe I'm misreading the options, but I feel like there's one missing for people who use cruise control (but not BlueCruise) and no lane centering. That's me.

The actual poll title narrows it down to just steering. But yeah, the thread title doesn't.

I couldn't live without CC. And I love that the MME has one-button CC. The 2-step CC on other Fords (like our Bronco Sport) is annoying to have to get used to after using the quick and easy one-button activation on the MME.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Hands on BlueCruise when available (no BCHF on this island). Otherwise plain ol adaptive with no lane centering (it’s not available all our roads).

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

The actual poll title narrows it down to just steering. But yeah, the thread title doesn't.

I couldn't live without CC. And I love that the MME has one-button CC. The 2-step CC on other Fords (like our Bronco Sport) is annoying to have to get used to after using the quick and easy one-button activation on the MME.

Our Raptor has a metric ton of buttons related to cruise control. As a result cc never gets used when driving it.

 

[apwelsh]

Yes you can use lane centering (Level 2) on unmapped roads as long as there are lane lines.

FYI hands-free BlueCruise is considered Level 2+. It is not Level 3 because it requires you to watch the road at all times.

I never heard of these levels, I was just incrementing.

 

[ArthurDOB]

"Most of the time"... If I'm local, then level 1 is the only possible mode for 99%. But on every trip, it's always level 2.

Same.

 

[ArthurDOB]

Expressway is BC for 2/3rds of my driving.

City streets would be 0 ADAS, but now since I can’t get rid of the giant car in the middle of the screen…. now I leave lane keeping on.

I wonder if you might have hit on something here that had not occurred to me. Perhaps the speedometer was moved to the right to encourage the use of lane-keeping.

(Others: For Lee 's sake, please take speedometer placement rants to the "rant" threads on that topic!)

 

[dwst480]

That would be level 0 - no steering aids.

Got it. I liked BlueCruise for the 3 months I had it, but I don’t drive BC highways often enough to justify $800/year for it. Actually even if I did, I’m still not sure I would pay it. And without BlueCruise, I find myself fighting the lane keeping. It always wants to take me further to the right than I’m comfortable with.

 

[bp99]

I couldn't live without CC. And I love that the MME has one-button CC. The 2-step CC on other Fords (like our Bronco Sport) is annoying to have to get used to after using the quick and easy one-button activation on the MME.

It NEEDs to be two button activation. The number of times I've accidentally turned it on and had the car want to accelerate in to traffic when stopping at a stop sign (one pedal drive, so no brake pedal involved to disengage it) is far too many. Unless they move the button away from the edge where the palm of someone's thumb cannot accidentally press it, it needs an extra layer of safety.

The funny thing is, it's so close to the outside, that to press it on purpose, I have to take my hand off the wheel. And so close to the outside, that it's constantly getting pressed by accident. It's more effort than if it were further away and I could just use my thumb to press it twice. I have the same issue with the audio controls on the right side. Since I have to take my hand off the wheel to use them, I just use the screen/dial on the screen.

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