By Mike Sheldrick, Senior Editor
Ford Motor Company has joined the ranks of automakers touting hands-free driving, with its announcement of “BlueCruise,” available later this year on the F-150. Few are hiding their lights under a bushel these days and certainly not Ford, which said the system was released after a 500,000-mile testing program followed by the “mother of all road trips” to prove its mettle. Its hands-free mode is only possible on roughly 100,000 miles of allowed roadways.
Ford says its BlueCruise is similar to Tesla’s Autopilot, and GM’s Supercruise, but better. Autopilot requires a driver to keep his or her hands on the wheel, although this is often defeated by reckless show-offs — mostly recently in the Woodlands, TX, a tony suburb north of Houston, where two people died last week in a fiery Tesla crash.
As for GM, which also allows hands-free driving only on certain roads, Ford says that its system of driver notification of when to take control of the wheel is superior. While GM uses a system of red and green lighting, BlueCruise uses text and blue lighting cues in an instrument cluster transition that is effective even for drivers who are color blind.
All these systems are what the Society of Automotive Engineers defines as a Level 2 Advanced Driving System (ADAS), meaning that the driver must be ready to take charge when needed. In all, the SAE defines six levels of driving, So-called autonomous modes are progressively more under the control of the vehicle — up to Level 6, where the driver is literally just along for the ride.
While BlueCruise apparently doesn’t support lane change, as do Autopilot and Cadillac’s Supercruise, it does support lane centering and towing.
For F-150, BlueCruise is available as part of Ford’s Co-Pilot 360 Active 2.0 package for $1,595– $995 for the hardware, and $600 for the software. It will also be available on the Mustang Mach E, with remote updates.
BlueCruise represents the use of a camera to monitor the driver’s attention to the road and readiness to reassert control. As we move toward higher levels of autonomy, even more of these so-called Driver Monitor Systems (DMS) will be needed. How much “nagging” drivers will tolerate in return to reduce risk is unknown. In the end, many might prefer a driverless car to constant warnings and alerts. People are irrational when it comes to gauging and accepting risk. Covid-19 has taught us that.
https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/14/22383460/ford-bluecruise-hands-free-adas-f150-mustang-mache
