Granch
Active member
For those getting allot of warnings and error with lane centering and Bluecrusie, I disabled lane keep assist Aid option and set to alert only and the experience has been fabulous
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Excellent analysis.Hi everyone,
I just finished my first big road trip with Blue Cruise and thought I’d share my experience. My truck is a Job 1 build, so it came with all the hardware but not the software for Blue Cruise. Getting the software updated took some persistence. I joined the Early Access Program but had issues with one of the updates. I took it into my dealership and they were absolutely zero help. I also joined the Advanced Analytics Program, which gives Ford permission to track everything I do with the truck. Once my dealer wasn’t helpful, I reached out the people running the EAP and asked for help. The support person was responsive but didn’t appear to be deeply technical, so I escalated my situation. I was then connected with the product manager for EAP and she was great - got engineering involved, figured out my problem and scheduled a Ford tech to come to my dealership the next day. The Ford tech told the dealership to update all my software due to an issue with OTA updates. Not surprisingly my dealership screwed that up and didn’t update all the modules. Again the product manager was super helpful and got the rest of my modules updated over OTA. I now have Blue Cruise!
For the last month or so, I’ve only used it a couple times for short freeway trips. I work from home and live in a San Francisco, so I mostly use the truck for road trips.
Yesterday was the first big road trip: 860 miles - SF to Tucson.
I started the trip by going over the Bay Bridge and Blue Cruise wasn’t available. Oddly I kept getting “Watch the road” alerts even though Blue Cruise wasn’t available and I was only using Lane-Keeping. I’ve never gotten “Watch the road” alerts when using Lane-Keeping, just the alerts to put my hands on the wheel. I found this slightly annoying because I kept getting the alerts even though I’d actually be looking at the road. I tried to turn off Blue Cruise completely in hope that the “Watch the road” alerts would go away. From the Cruise Control menu I disabled “Lane Centering with Hands-Free” but that didn’t disable the “Watch the road” alerts. From what I can tell, the monitoring of your face/eyes is done with both Blue Cruise and Lane-Keeping. That is definitely a change from pre-Blue Cruise and one I do not like. I also tried disabling "Driver Alert" in the Drive Assistance menu, but that didn't have any effect on the “Watch the road” alerts. I don't really know what that does.
Throughout the drive I got a lot of false-positive “Watch the road” alerts. I’d be looking directly at the road and it would go off multiple times. I also found that the alerts were overly sensitive. It would go off when I was checking my side mirrors or briefly looking at the map to know where to turn. I don’t know how heavily the government regulates these safety mechanisms, but there is a lot of room for improvement. My guess is that Ford has made this decision irrespective of the Federal government since other car makers (e.g. Tesla) are not as aggressive at monitoring the driver.
The route I took was interstate-5 to southern California, then interstate-210 and finally interstate-10 to Tucson. Pretty straightforward drive. Blue Cruise worked for most of the drive (on interstates). It would randomly cut out for short periods and I couldn’t really figure out why. Not sure if there are (very) small portions of these interstates where it isn’t supported or if some environmental conditions were causing the pauses. Besides the “Watch the road” alerts, I found that it worked quite well and definitely made the drive easier.
Couple observations:
I’m very curious how Ford is planning to mange the user experience between Lane-Keeping and Blue Cruise. Ideally the two systems play nicely together and it is easy to pick which one you prefer. For example, my wife will probably never use Blue Cruise. She isn’t comfortable taking her hands off the wheel. But it wasn’t obvious to me how I could disable Blue Cruise. Even after disabling “Lane Centering with Hands-Free” I still got the “Watch the road” alerts. Maybe that is as designed, but it definitely wasn’t how Lane-Keeping worked previously. I’d prefer “Watch the road” alerts were disabled when Blue Cruise is disabled. I'd also prefer that there was a very clear menu option - “Disable Blue Cruise”. I also wonder what the user experience will be like if your truck has Blue Cruise, but do not subscribe to it - will Lane-Keeping still work? What will the menu options look like? Will it still monitor your eyes?
- From the time I enable Blue Cruise/Lane-Keeping to the time it becomes active is longer than it took for Lane-Keeping to turn on pre-Blue Cruise. Maybe it is designed to try and enable Blue Cruise first and then only enables Lane-Keeping once Blue Cruise fails.
- It is my experience that Lane-Keeping is better at steering through turns than Blue Cruise. I don’t know how much the two systems overlap (maybe not at all?), but I’ve found turns where Blue Cruise fails - literally crossing the lane, while pre-Blue Cruise, Lane-Keeping handled the same turn no problem. In general Blue Cruise bounces in the lane more than Lane-Keeping. I find Lane-Keeping tracks a tighter path in the lane than Blue Cruise.
In the end, I like Blue Cruise and I’m hopeful that they will continue to improve it. When comparing it to Lane-Keeping, I’m not 100% sure I’d pay for Blue Cruise. It isn’t that big of an upgrade over Lane-Keeping, especially since Lane-Keeping does a better job holding the lane through turns. My biggest ask is that Ford sort out the “Watch the road” alerts. These should not be on when using Lane-Keeping and need to be tuned for fewer false positives when using Blue Cruise. It would also be nice if the alerts worked like the hands on steering wheel alerts - no sound w/yellow warning to start and then a beeping with red warning. Because the “Watch the road” alerts are so aggressive and beep immediately it makes them very annoying - and woke up my daughter from her nap, which is never a good idea
The false "watch the road" alerts drive me crazy when BC is active. Been trying to figure out what the system is upset about. Has anyone found any hidden settings or tweaks to get the system to back off? "Scratches nose" *WATCH THE ROAD*The irony is that the repeated false alarm warnings to "watch the road" are distracting. Each warning with associated audible alert causes the driver to take eyes off the road to look at the display to see what the problem is. Ford needs to knock this nanny stuff off. If the truck is tracking the lane and no traffic is in front of the truck, there is no need to prompt the driver to watch the road. On the other hand if the sensors detected a potential conflict such a warning would be in order.
Did you share these opinions with the Ford PM you engaged with when initially getting the software provisioned?In the end, I like Blue Cruise and I’m hopeful that they will continue to improve it. When comparing it to Lane-Keeping, I’m not 100% sure I’d pay for Blue Cruise. It isn’t that big of an upgrade over Lane-Keeping, especially since Lane-Keeping does a better job holding the lane through turns. My biggest ask is that Ford sort out the “Watch the road” alerts. These should not be on when using Lane-Keeping and need to be tuned for fewer false positives when using Blue Cruise. It would also be nice if the alerts worked like the hands on steering wheel alerts - no sound w/yellow warning to start and then a beeping with red warning. Because the “Watch the road” alerts are so aggressive and beep immediately it makes them very annoying - and woke up my daughter from her nap, which is never a good idea
I took my first trip on June 2-6 from KY to MN about 1,500 miles round trip. Activated BlueCruise for 75% of the trip to Minnesota and was flawless. This takes the lag out of the trip. I had to deactivate it going through Chicago just because of traffic. I hate Chicago traffic! On the way home I went down through Iowa and back and less BlueCruise options there but still functioned well even in construction zones although I didn't feel comfortable leaving it on in construction.I had my first trip, using Blue Cruise. It was from NE Iowa to Branson, Missouri, and back. Loved using the BC. It was a 1,000-mile round trip. I would estimate that I was able to use it 75% of the time. There were many miles of 4-lane roads there were not on the Ford map but allowed BC to operate with no problems.
I was out for a drive yesterday and we had both head and cross winds, that were strong at times. BC handled them well. Only once did I feel the need to take the wheel. It was a 90 mile trip. That was my expereinnce yesterday.OP, did you encounter any strong winds on your journey? Interested in how BC reacts to unexpected wind gusts.
Can't say that I've noticed any impact from the wind. I just did another big drive from San Diego to San Francisco and used BC quite a bit. I can imagine that very large gusts, especially cross wind, would throw off BC and require the driver to take control. I've noticed BC can struggle with turns and I've had to grab the wheel at least a half dozen times over two long road trips.OP, did you encounter any strong winds on your journey? Interested in how BC reacts to unexpected wind gusts.
The "eyes on the road" alerts are extremely annoying, especially due to all the false positives. Even more disappointing that Ford enabled this monitoring even when just using Lane Centering (w/hands on). I find the amount of alerting and changes from BC to Lane Centering to nothing (and vice versa) can be so frequent that it is actually distracting.For what it's worth I found this video that explains a few things.
1. It confirms that the camera is watching your eyes with "hands on" lane centering. This was probably added in one of the updates for Job1 because it didn’t do that previously.
2. The alerts for watching the road will change depending on what the vehicle thinks you are doing. It might just be a message if you are looking at the screen. It might be a chime if you are looking away. It might be red and angry and slow you down if you are not paying attention at all.
3. Ford has expanded the BlueCruise branding to include the "hands on" lane centering.