BlueCruise 1.0 thoughts after first long distance use

[oneinch]

Keep in mind...

Yes, I had all what you said in mind. I still suspect further so called improvements may likely be more annoyance on top of the BC nanny cam.

I paid $80,000 cash for my truck and I think $700+/year for BC is ridiculous. I don't often drive on BC roads, but I'd say the same thing even if I did often drive on BC roads. Besides, there's a simple hack to negate BC which further devalues BC.

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[bigwyo]

My most exciting experience with Bluecruise was when it tried to take an off ramp at 80mph. Luckily, I was paying attention, unluckily my wife was also paying attention!
Maybe at some point, I’ll get more comfortable with it but, right now, I have to pay so much attention to what’s going on that I might as well be driving!

 

[Deleted member 15247]

My most exciting experience with Bluecruise was when it tried to take an off ramp at 80mph. Luckily, I was paying attention, unluckily my wife was also paying attention!
Maybe at some point, I’ll get more comfortable with it but, right now, I have to pay so much attention to what’s going on that I might as well be driving!

Where I live, and keeping in mind there’s a lot of new road construction going on, but the BC is definitely not a set and forget system. It’s sketchy at best. Straightaways and very slight curves it’s pretty good but it requires constant monitoring and it’s failed so many times in terms of crossing into another lane that I really could care less if I use it or not. Which begs the question, WTF is Ford thinking by charging 800 a year after the trial runs out. Are they serious with that BS?

 

[bigwyo]

Where I live, and keeping in mind there’s a lot of new road construction going on, but the BC is definitely not a set and forget system. It’s sketchy at best. Straightaways and very slight curves it’s pretty good but it requires constant monitoring and it’s failed so many times in terms of crossing into another lane that I really could care less if I use it or not. Which begs the question, WTF is Ford thinking by charging 800 a year after the trial runs out. Are they serious with that BS?

I had to have the dealer update my truck a couple months ago to get Bluecruise activated. The Ford Pass app still shows that Bluecruise is coming soon and 10/9/2073 is the expiration date showing on the syns screen. I don’t foresee paying a large fee once the trial expires. It was fun being able to try it out since I paid for the prep package!

 

[Deleted member 15247]

I had to have the dealer update my truck a couple months ago to get Bluecruise activated. The Ford Pass app still shows that Bluecruise is coming soon and 10/9/2073 is the expiration date showing on the syns screen. I don’t foresee paying a large fee once the trial expires. It was fun being able to try it out since I paid for the prep package!

2073???? Well it doesn’t seem you have to worry then. That’s pretty cool

 

[bigwyo]

2073???? Well it doesn’t seem you have to worry then. That’s pretty cool

I think everyone that had the dealership do the update has the same date. I’m not counting on that being accurate!

 

[MrT]

My recent BC experience was flawless. Drove from Tucson, Az., to K.C., Johnson County, remained on BC interstate highways for the majority of the 2600 mile round trip. I-10 to I-25, to I-40 to I-35 and back. '21 Powerboost, Lariat 502a package. Average 24 MPG at 75-78, but when my wife was driving 80 + it dropped to 22 MPG. Overall experience was just what you'd expect from semi-autonomous driving. This is the longest trip we've taken and after some getting used to, it was actually relaxing. I felt more rested after 11+ hours on the road, and it is refreshing to be reminded (infrequently) to pay attention to what you're doing. You are still behind the wheel of a motor vehicle and no amount of artificial intelligence can predict when an 18 wheeler will shred a tire when you're about to pass. Expectations need to be managed when using this new technology and I appreciate Ford's efforts to roll this out incrementally and not deceive anyone with false "AUTO-PILOT" language. Hats off to Ford.

 

[rugedraw]

Mine is garbage. It will scare you to death ping pong from left to right constantly almost hit semi truck. I'm over it. Unless we get 1.2 I will not use it.

Mine used to do the same. Your truck needs IPMA and camera calibration procedures done. You can do it yourself with FORscan, or try to have your dealer do it if you don't want to take that route.

 

[Tuffram1996]

Mine used to do the same. Your truck needs IPMA and camera calibration procedures done. You can do it yourself with FORscan, or try to have your dealer do it if you don't want to take that route.

I have forscan and mongoose interface. Can you provide some instructions on how to proceed with the calibration please?

 

[rugedraw]

I have forscan and mongoose interface. Can you provide some instructions on how to proceed with the calibration please?

I've never done it on FORscan.....when I did it to my truck, I used FDRS. From my understanding, all you do is click the IPMA module and scroll through the list of things you can do until you see the calibration procedure. IMPA calibration will require that you drive the truck for "x" amount of times on a road where the lane markings are well painted and highly visible. I had to drive mine maybe 2 miles or so before it finished. It made a BIG difference in Bluecruise performance.

 

[Tuffram1996]

I've never done it on FORscan.....when I did it to my truck, I used FDRS. From my understanding, all you do is click the IPMA module and scroll through the list of things you can do until you see the calibration procedure. IMPA calibration will require that you drive the truck for "x" amount of times on a road where the lane markings are well painted and highly visible. I had to drive mine maybe 2 miles or so before it finished. It made a BIG difference in Bluecruise performance.

OK it might be worth it for me to get a 2 day sub to FDRS update a few things and calibrat BlueCruise

 

[Nighsight]

I have never experienced the “ping pong” people say is so common, either in Bluecruise on my current truck, or in adaptive cruise w/ lane centering on my previous Lariat. I had a good enough experience with the Lariat that Bluecruise was a big draw toward a Platinum when it got totaled.

That said: I hate Bluecruise. It’s smooth as butter for me when it works. But it disengages on curves, disengages on some bridges, disengages in light rain, and the absolute worst, disengages above 80mph. It does all of the above with no audible warning, which is dangerous. The 80mph limit makes it fairly useless around here.

I HATE the eye monitor. It nags me after mere seconds. It nags me if I go to change songs/podcasts. It nags me if I glance over at my girlfriend for more than about 3 seconds in conversation. It nags me when I check my rear view mirror too much. Hate, hate, hate, hate the eye nanny. And the worst part: it nags me when i am NOT EVEN IN BLUECRUISE. Having the feature has been a significant downgrade from regular adaptive cruise.

I absolutely love the Platinum and would be perfectly happy to just ignore bluecruise and go back to regular Bluecruise, except for the eye monitor. I’m a lifelong nerd and a software engineer by trade. So, I decided to take the Openpilot plunge. I’ve ordered one of the new Comma 3x units, even though Openpilot is basically bleeding edge on our trucks. I’m looking forward to banishing Bluecruise.

Interested in what you have found on the Openpilot tech. As far as I have seen, it doesn't look like they make a harness for our trucks. How are you going to interface it with your truck?

 

[hitchhiker]

Interested in what you have found on the Openpilot tech. As far as I have seen, it doesn't look like they make a harness for our trucks. How are you going to interface it with your truck?

The Ford Q4 harness works with our trucks. Ford support was only just added and the F150 support isn’t official yet. If you type Ford into the harness dropdown and scroll all the way down you will see the Q4. It will be a while before I get it but I’ll start a thread when I get it working.

 

[Nighsight]

The Ford Q4 harness works with our trucks. Ford support was only just added and the F150 support isn’t official yet. If you type Ford into the harness dropdown and scroll all the way down you will see the Q4. It will be a while before I get it but I’ll start a thread when I get it working.

Sounds good. Will it only work for folks that have Bluecruise, or also the trucks with the active 2.0 system?

 

[oneinch]

"...I might as well be driving!"

One should be driving at all times. Just because the truck is steering itself doesn't alleviate one from being the intelligence in control of the vehicle.

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