Received invite for Early Access to BlueCruise update

[AutonomousHybridF150]

On top of everything else I have ranted about, clearly the prior posters do not fully understand sample size and the scientific method.

We do not have nearly enough data from the video review to make any conclusions about how anything does or doesn’t work well in curves or with blue cruise either.

We saw maybe 3-4 curves in the video so that’s not even close to a resonable sample size.

2 things you should know about lane centering. It can’t navigate roads (lanes with lines) that get excessively narrow (similar to that curve) and it also thinks something is wrong when it sees solid white lines on both sides. It isn’t typical on roads, so it does confuse it sometimes. Also, there was a huge open area with no lines to the right and an 18 wheeler in the camera views to the forward right. It didn’t turn off ONLY because of the curve, it disabled lane centering ALSO because it wasn’t confident the 18 wheeler wasn’t a wall and there were no clear road edge lines, or dirt/grass, basically nothing for it to see. So that is an entirely different issue.
My lane centering can navigate curves with ease, and it does it even better when you have the aggressiveness on HIGH. When angular momentum is being changed it takes steering force to overcome the straight line that physics requires the truck to drive.

If the system fought you too hard, people would complain too, so there are 3 setting levels. If it isn’t aggressive enough for your liking, please turn it on high.

Not to mention Sandy Turned it off for one curve because he had no clue what he was doing not how the system works (lane centering without blue cruise).

Curve with solid lines:

Similar Angle / Sharp Curve (and Blue Cruise stayed on): In fact it looks like a steeper curve than the previous.

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[kcmarvin]

Did the same thing driving back from Iowa to Sacramento. 75% of the trip didn’t have hands on the steering wheel. That ankle weight is legit.

I used the weight on the steering wheel when returning to Vermont from Iowa when I picked up my F150. There were two occurrences in prior construction zones in Ohio where the lane centering turned me quickly to the left as it was following old crossover lines. In one case, I would have side swiped a semi truck if I had not had my hands on the wheel to prevent the turn. I hope that BlueCruise has more smarts to prevent this problem. Either way, I strongly suggest keeping your hands on the wheel when using cruise control and lane centering.

 

[AutonomousHybridF150]

I think this video answers some questions about what functionality is brought by the “GPS mapping” and approved roadways areas. Instead of using that data to bias the system for upcoming turns or change the feedback gain or anything else to make the system more accurate in a turn, the GPS and mapping data is simply used to identify when the system will require you put your hands back on the wheel. It’s a bit disappointing and leads me to believe that there won’t be any enhancement above and beyond the current 360 system lane centering other than turning off the steering wheel sensor on straight sections of the highway and turning on the eye monitoring. It still remains to be seen how annoying the eye monitoring will be.

This couldn’t be further from the truth. They perform 3D maps of the roads, so the vehicle does know where to drive. They aren’t mapping the roads to know where to turn blue cruise on, they are making it be more precise.

Ford can’t drop the ball on their early adopters otherwise the entire system will flunk. They are still developing things to put in the software, and this is a peek at a pre-beta vehicle.

 

[AutonomousHybridF150]

I used the weight on the steering wheel when returning to Vermont from Iowa when I picked up my F150. There were two occurrences in prior construction zones in Ohio where the lane centering turned me quickly to the left as it was following old crossover lines. In one case, I would have side swiped a semi truck if I had not had my hands on the wheel to prevent the turn. I hope that BlueCruise has more smarts to prevent this problem. Either way, I strongly suggest keeping your hands on the wheel when using cruise control and lane centering.

It wouldn’t have hit the semi. It would have detected it and stopped going that direction. I have experienced this a lot.

Anytime an 18 wheeler is next to me, my truck widens the gap between truck and 18 wheeler.

 

[SonnyDigs]

Geez….

Ok I have now watch the video. Time for Rant #2.

1. It was the solid lines on the road that caused it to cancel. Not ONLY the curve. This is another example of a Ford employee that doesn’t know how their own product handles lane detection. After 26k miles behind the wheel, I can assure you the system doesn’t like solid white lines on both sides and makes you drive.

2. You can’t compare Ford’s 1,000 prep + 600 Bliecruise fee to Tesla’s 10,000 dollar package for FSD.

3. Clearly Sandy has no idea how the lane centering works, otherwise he wouldn’t have been fumbling the system up while they drove. He also would have had FULL confidence on the 2nd curve if he knew the blue cruise and lane centering “chimes” and even had a clue how Lane Centering was supposed to work.

4. This is yet another terrible review done by an old man that doesn’t know how to work the vehicle, and compares it to a system that costs 10x as much. I guess Ford is just supposed to give the best FSD tech away for free.

5. THE SYSTEM HASNT BEEN ROLLED OUT YET. It is in PRE BETA currently, and not even in public beta yet.

These are the same people that download the iPhone public BETA and complain because it has bugs.

ITS BETA. ITS NOT GOING TO BE PERFECT on day 1 of early access, and if you are enrolled in early access already, then you should have read the fine print. Because it basically says you can’t fault them if the features you receiver are incomplete or broken.

If you are enrolled in early access and you plan to say things like “Ford’s System Blows” after watching 1 review with like 2-3 curves shown, then please remove yourself from this thread and remove yourself from Early Access because this stage of Blue Cruise development simply isn’t for you.

There has been little to no negative comments on this thread about Lane Centering or Blue Cruise, and some hippie jump in here and says it blows.

Go drive for 26k miles with only Lane Centering on for the majority of the miles (let it change your life like it has mine) and then come back and post some positive things about it. Otherwise, please reserve your negative comments for the other threads where negativity is vital.

Getting early access is a privilege and you should be happy you are on the list to get the BETA version when they make it available to us. If you don’t want to pay 600 dollars for your truck to drive, then don’t do it.

It will be your loss 100%, and I feel many others with experience in lane centering might agree. It is beyond amazing how lane centering works right now. I can’t phantom how great it will be once it get better.

I totally agree, the last thing needed is a negative review based on a poor demonstration of Blue Cruise.
As far as I'm concerned it works nearly flawlessly as it is now.
Also I agree if you aren't pleased then opt out of early access and remove your post..
I can't wait for the early release and how great it will be received.
If you are looking at these reviewers for information related to your decision on buying a new
F-150 with Blue Cruise, never look back..
Will be the best truck you've ever driven..
Thanks Ford for a unique vehicle,
I love mine.

 

[Aaron34]

This couldn’t be further from the truth. They perform 3D maps of the roads, so the vehicle does know where to drive. They aren’t mapping the roads to know where to turn blue cruise on, they are making it be more precise.

Ford can’t drop the ball on their early adopters otherwise the entire system will flunk. They are still developing things to put in the software, and this is a peek at a pre-beta vehicle.

Exactly. Right now Lane Centering wants to take each off ramp when I’m in the right hand lane and not actively steering. It’s my understanding the GPS mapping will enlighten the truck enough to know about the off ramp and to stay in the lane, rather than simply follow the shoulder line right off the freeway.

 

[newdeal99]

1. Have you heard? Blue cruise isn’t out yet. Not even to the registered early access program. Basically, blue cruise is still in the testing phase, and hasn’t even been rolled out to their Beta program drivers. People that leave large posts absolutely crapping on what I feel is a crowning achievement in automotive history are just ignorant people that have no clue how absolutely amazingly complex these systems actually are.

2. Ignorance is bliss. Did you ever look into the aggressiveness settings on your lane centering? Do you even own a truck?, or are you just repeating crap you think you know about because you read 4 post of a thread of 1000 posts? Have you tried turning the aggressiveness up? The aggressiveness setting controls how hard it “fights” the driver to do what it wants.

The problem is, if set to normal or easy, the momentum of the vehicle cannot be changed enough, and the computer thinks you are steering. So if you want the truck to control your “ankle weight back” better then you have to turn the settings up. Geez.

Not trying to be rude, but you shouldn’t say Ford’s system blows, because you can’t follow directions.

Using an ankle weight isn’t in the directions for how to use lane centering, so how the heck are you going to blast Ford for not “keeping you in the lane” when it CLEARLY says keep your hands on the wheel.

And if you said the system blows, and you have no clue how it’s AI and algorithms works, and you don’t even have the truck to boot, then you need to delete your post.

If you do have the Truck, and you feel the system blows, then there is something wrong with your truck and you need to bring it to the dealer.

People dread customer reviews like the one you just posted, and other people are going to be turned off by it.

Just so everyone knows, I’ve driven my truck 26k miles, with at least 20k miles using lane centering. I only touch the wheel every 30 seconds, and my truck navigates curves a stupid fast speeds (without my hands on the wheel).

This guy doesn’t know what he is talking about, so please disregard the rubbish review he just posted.

If the Ford lane centering was an add on package for older vehicles, I would pay $20,000 for it. I hope the other guy never activates blue cruise.

I remember my iPhone model 1 well, and it was very limited. But somehow, it was a completely different phone 3 years later through the magic of “software updates”

Just think on that for a second. It’s people like this guy that is keeping Ford from releasing the early access to people like us. So thanks for ruining it for everyone.

You are a real character. I clearly described what happens when I drive the truck so obviously I own one, I have driven about 10,000km and use cruise control about 90% of the time. I am very familiar with the system and its pros and cons. It does a fine job if you expectations are really low. If you are expecting it to drive itself like is claimed you will be very disappointed just like Sandy was.

 

[GolfR]

It wouldn’t have hit the semi. It would have detected it and stopped going that direction. I have experienced this a lot.

Anytime an 18 wheeler is next to me, my truck widens the gap between truck and 18 wheeler.

Do you have a reference to where this functionality is explained or Ford has said that it does this? Several of the Ford sponsored reviews have said the Super cruise does or will do this but Blue Cruise does not. Personally, my experience with lane centering is that the truck will not adjust in the lane based on traffic in other lanes. I’ve had to adjust the truck manually in the lane before because it was biasing me toward a semi in the adjacent lane or at least not giving me the room that I felt comfortable.

I’m not doubting that this capability exists and could be implemented, my question is whether it is actually on the current lane centering software.

 

[F-150 Prius]

a Ford employee that doesn’t know how their own product

It seems to me the Ford guy missed opportunities to be forthright about the strengths of Co-Pilot … I found myself muttering at the screen … : )
The good news is, they let "influencers" play with a product when it's close to public release and they want to drum up awareness (which is also the purpose of the "early access" program, I'm guessing.)
I've had 8000 miles of long distance freeway driving across the country and co-pilot is engaged as soon as possible.
FWIW, I paid $1300 at the start of 2019 when Tesla (briefly) dropped the price. Ever since they've had real trouble getting the software written and the price has been a silly $10K because they decided to shift to a subscription model. This is both liability mitigation (when they realize they have to refund everyone with a car that can't "do" FSD) and a better tax accounting treatment for revenue recognition (all those deposits are deferred revenue.)

 

[kcmarvin]

It wouldn’t have hit the semi. It would have detected it and stopped going that direction. I have experienced this a lot.

Anytime an 18 wheeler is next to me, my truck widens the gap between truck and 18 wheeler.

Regardless of whether the system prevents hitting the semi it is very dangerous for the vehicle to swerve as it did when next to another vehicle. Are you saying that you get the swerves and trust the vehicle to correct and prevent the collision without your intervention?
I have found that with lane centering my car appears to get closer to semis when I am passing on the left lane. In this case it is narrowing the gap. I believe this is f150 maintaining the center of the lane while the semi wanders into or close to my lane.
Overall, I believe it is dangerous to trust my life, my passengers lives and others driver's lives to a lane centering system that is fooled into autonomous driving using the weights.

 

[GolfR]

This couldn’t be further from the truth. They perform 3D maps of the roads, so the vehicle does know where to drive. They aren’t mapping the roads to know where to turn blue cruise on, they are making it be more precise.

Ford can’t drop the ball on their early adopters otherwise the entire system will flunk. They are still developing things to put in the software, and this is a peek at a pre-beta vehicle.

I wholly agree that Ford can’t drop the ball but I’m only going by what the passenger in the video said about asking the driver to resume control in the turn.

Im not sure what you mean by 3D in your statement. Lat/Lon/height? I don’t understand how that would help. Some self driving cars have experimented with 3D lidar solutions but that doesn’t apply to the F150. All references and information I've read about the mapping is that it's high resolution or differential GPS to get more accurate location and not mapping of obstructions which is partially implied by saying they 3D mapped the highways.

Lets be clear...it's just as important to understand what the system doesn't do as what it does in order to safely use the system. Making uninformed claims about what the system does or how it operates under the hood is just as detrimental to Ford and perspective owners as trashing the functionality that exists.

 

[diesel97]

You are a real character. I clearly described what happens when I drive the truck so obviously I own one, I have driven about 10,000km and use cruise control about 90% of the time. I am very familiar with the system and its pros and cons. It does a fine job if you expectations are really low. If you are expecting it to drive itself like is claimed you will be very disappointed just like Sandy was.

It sounds like you are already on the Blue cruise beta program because LC is not the same thing

 

[xtraman122]

1. Have you heard? Blue cruise isn’t out yet. Not even to the registered early access program. Basically, blue cruise is still in the testing phase, and hasn’t even been rolled out to their Beta program drivers. People that leave large posts absolutely crapping on what I feel is a crowning achievement in automotive history are just ignorant people that have no clue how absolutely amazingly complex these systems actually are.

2. Ignorance is bliss. Did you ever look into the aggressiveness settings on your lane centering? Do you even own a truck?, or are you just repeating crap you think you know about because you read 4 post of a thread of 1000 posts? Have you tried turning the aggressiveness up? The aggressiveness setting controls how hard it “fights” the driver to do what it wants.

The problem is, if set to normal or easy, the momentum of the vehicle cannot be changed enough, and the computer thinks you are steering. So if you want the truck to control your “ankle weight back” better then you have to turn the settings up. Geez.

Not trying to be rude, but you shouldn’t say Ford’s system blows, because you can’t follow directions.

Using an ankle weight isn’t in the directions for how to use lane centering, so how the heck are you going to blast Ford for not “keeping you in the lane” when it CLEARLY says keep your hands on the wheel.

And if you said the system blows, and you have no clue how it’s AI and algorithms works, and you don’t even have the truck to boot, then you need to delete your post.

If you do have the Truck, and you feel the system blows, then there is something wrong with your truck and you need to bring it to the dealer.

People dread customer reviews like the one you just posted, and other people are going to be turned off by it.

Just so everyone knows, I’ve driven my truck 26k miles, with at least 20k miles using lane centering. I only touch the wheel every 30 seconds, and my truck navigates curves a stupid fast speeds (without my hands on the wheel).

This guy doesn’t know what he is talking about, so please disregard the rubbish review he just posted.

If the Ford lane centering was an add on package for older vehicles, I would pay $20,000 for it. I hope the other guy never activates blue cruise.

I remember my iPhone model 1 well, and it was very limited. But somehow, it was a completely different phone 3 years later through the magic of “software updates”

Just think on that for a second. It’s people like this guy that is keeping Ford from releasing the early access to people like us. So thanks for ruining it for everyone.

Where is this setting for the strength of the lane centering? I can't seem to find any such setting on my truck. There's one for the intensity of the Lane Keeping system, but that has absolutely nothing to do with how much force the wheel turns when lane centering is on - it's the intensity that it vibrates the steering wheel or turns you back in depending how you have it configured just for lane keeping, not lane centering. What you're referring to must be somewhere else in the settings? Or maybe my truck just doesn't have it as an option.

 

[GolfR]

It’s been about 4 weeks since the original emails rolled out with the early access sign up stating it was weeks away. Anyone have any contact, updates, or even rumors when folks might see availability of BlueCruise?

 

[Caneman88]

It’s been about 4 weeks since the original emails rolled out with the early access sign up stating it was weeks away. Anyone have any contact, updates, or even rumors when folks might see availability of BlueCruise?

Still Waiting

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