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YzermanTopShelf

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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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
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?

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 🤣

Ford F-150 Upgrading to Blue Cruise & First Major Road Trip w/ Blue Cruise IMG_0884


Ford F-150 Upgrading to Blue Cruise & First Major Road Trip w/ Blue Cruise IMG_0880


Ford F-150 Upgrading to Blue Cruise & First Major Road Trip w/ Blue Cruise IMG_0882
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tbinmd

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I have a 2022 Job 1 truck that came active with Bluecruise. I'm not getting the false watch the road alerts, I have to really go out of my way to get it to throw a warning. I wonder if the hardware is slightly different.
 

Antimatter22

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Seems like my system has been giving me a lot of false positive "Watch the road" warnings lately as well. Not sure the difference between now and 3-4 weeks ago, besides it's actually sunny outside and not just an overcast.

I too have been getting a lot of "Watch the road" warnings with using adaptive cruise on a two lane country roads lately. It gets to a point that I just disable lane centering on the steering wheel so I don't have to deal with it.

FWIW I wear polarized sunglasses that do not have mirrored lens. I haven't really had much issue with using these in the past and have done a couple ~200 mile trips using mostly Blue Cruise with them.

Interested in hearing if others have run into Blue Cruise nagging more recently. Truck has a build of 2/22.
 

DHBPhoto

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I have a '21. Not sure it has "blue cruise" but it has lane centering. I use it when I need to respond to texts or emails, or best, while eating. I get the keep hands on steering "orange" warning and then the "keep eyes on road" or whatever red warning. It will then cancel if I don't.

Is blue cruise more then this?
 
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YzermanTopShelf

YzermanTopShelf

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I have a '21. Not sure it has "blue cruise" but it has lane centering. I use it when I need to respond to texts or emails, or best, while eating. I get the keep hands on steering "orange" warning and then the "keep eyes on road" or whatever red warning. It will then cancel if I don't.

Is blue cruise more then this?
Yeah, Blue Cruise is different. It is similar to Lane-Center/Keeping but fully hands free.

Sounds like the added monitoring of the drivers face to the Lane-Keeping system. Before I had Blue Cruise, Lane-Keeping never triggered alerts about watching the road. That is disappointing...
 
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Fredm2002

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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.
 

Aim64

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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:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
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?

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 🤣

IMG_0884.jpeg


IMG_0880.jpeg


IMG_0882.jpeg
 

Aim64

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I have a 2022 Job 1 truck that came active with Bluecruise. I'm not getting the false watch the road alerts, I have to really go out of my way to get it to throw a warning. I wonder if the hardware is slightly different.
I had my 2021 Platinum truck at dealer for 2 days and they were unable to fix the OTA that is locked. The OTA is locked at 1.4.
Called Ford OTA department numerous times with them telling me to take the truck back to the dealer.
Where do I get the telephone number for EAP.
Its frustrating that the dealer totally relies on Ford Engineering & Tech support , and they seem to not have the right way to fix it.
 

turbopilot

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My experience is the same as the OP driving BC around California with a Job 1, 2021 PowerBoost for the last two months.

I would also add the "Watch the Road" alert is also triggered anytime the camera over the Sync 4 screen is obstructed from viewing the driver's face/eyes. I have an iPad mounted right next to the camera that is watching my face. Anytime I reach up to tap the iPad, the camera is blocked and I get a "Watch the Road" alert. This happens while I am watching the road but apparently the alert is triggered if the camera cannot confirm this because it's view is blocked.

We need a Forscan hack to stop these nuisance alerts otherwise it is more peaceful to just drive the truck myself.
 

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J80john

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I have a 2021 lariat with blue cruise. It took the dealer a couple of attempts to get the software loaded. The current problem is that the map system has many locations on Thurston county, Wa. roads where it has 25mph zones that are incorrect. Actual speeds are at least 35 to 45. The map also has inconsistent speeds when compared with driving the other direction. I have the system set to upload software daily using Wi-Fi. The humorous thing is that before they installed the blue cruise software the old map speeds were correct….
 
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YzermanTopShelf

YzermanTopShelf

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Need to disable driver alert. Should fix the keep the eyes on the road. Your picture shows it to be enabled .
I tried that and it still alerted me. Just a coincidence that it was enabled when I took the photo. I’ll try disabling it again.
 
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YzermanTopShelf

YzermanTopShelf

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My experience is the same as the OP driving BC around California with a Job 1, 2021 PowerBoost for the last two months.

I would also add the "Watch the Road" alert is also triggered anytime the camera over the Sync 4 screen is obstructed from viewing the driver's face/eyes. I have an iPad mounted right next to the camera that is watching my face. Anytime I reach up to tap the iPad, the camera is blocked and I get a "Watch the Road" alert. This happens while I am watching the road but apparently the alert is triggered if the camera cannot confirm this because it's view is blocked.

We need a Forscan hack to stop these nuisance alerts otherwise it is more peaceful to just drive the truck myself.
Yeah, I had a similar issue - my phone mount blocked the camera. I had to move the mount to the vent on the passenger side. Kind of a PITA now to reach my phone. I don’t have all the forscan equipment but would get it on a heart beat if it let me disable these alerts.
 
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YzermanTopShelf

YzermanTopShelf

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I had my 2021 Platinum truck at dealer for 2 days and they were unable to fix the OTA that is locked. The OTA is locked at 1.4.
Called Ford OTA department numerous times with them telling me to take the truck back to the dealer.
Where do I get the telephone number for EAP.
Its frustrating that the dealer totally relies on Ford Engineering & Tech support , and they seem to not have the right way to fix it.
I don’t have a phone number for EAP. I just emailed them at [email protected]. If you haven’t already then you probably want to signup for EAP before emailing them.
 

Antimatter22

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Need to disable driver alert. Should fix the keep the eyes on the road. Your picture shows it to be enabled .
I'll have to give this a look over. I found today that several settings in Sync were reset (like auto wipers) for some reason. Perhaps this was reset as well.
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