BlueCruise vs Adaptive cruise control and lane centering

[Addabob64]

Biggest issue I've had on my '24 F150 with BC, is there is a stretch of highway on my way into work that it uses the navigation speed limit vs the speed limit signs. About 5 years ago, the stretch was a 55 mph zone, but now it's 65mph. Halfway between the signs the truck changes to 55mph and aggressively slows down. Now that I know it, I end up putting my foot on the gas just prior to that location. Other than that, so far, a good experience.

My 90 days will be up prior to taking my trip from NC to TX for Thanksgiving, in which BC can be used pretty much all the way there, so I am debating on if I will keep it, or purchase it for a month or two, just for said trip.

I have a non-BC road where that same exact thing happens to me. It has recently been widened and the nav speed limit data has not caught up yet (only about 6 months...). It is now FINALLY posted 70, but the nav has 65, 60, & 55 in various parts. I would love to turn off the nav speed limit stuff, but for now I do just like you and manually change the cruise back to 70 a few times.

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[johnhbrandon]

Hopefully, this will help to sort out the difference between BC and ACC. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) uses the same basic elements of Blue Cruise (BC). ACC depends on clear lane markings in order to define a “lane”. Assuming the lane markings are clearly visible, ACC will keep your truck centered in the lane you’re in. It does not “ping pong” back and forth like some have suggested. It does a remarkable job of smooth, accurate driving. The “ping pong” that has been mentioned is a feature called “lane keeping” which is different than ACC “lane centering”. Lane keeping works at speeds of 40 mph and above by nudging the truck back into the lane if it starts to drift out. It will also vibrate the steering column to alert you. ACC with “lane centering” works at any speed and keeps the truck dead centered in the lane at all times. When engaged, ACC will automatically slow down to maintain a pre-selected, safe distance behind slower vehicles, matching its speed. In order to pass the slower vehicle, you must activate your turn signal which allows you to manually steer the truck into the clear lane. Once in the clear lane, when you return the turn signal to off, the truck will automatically resume auto driving and will return to the pre-selected speed. This is also a function of what is called TJA (traffic jam assist) that will automatically keep your truck creeping along in a traffic jam. And it will automatically bring the truck to a complete stop in that mode. Like some have mentioned, ACC does not watch your eyes with a camera inside but requires some feedback by sensing slight manual movement or torque of your hand(s) on the steering wheel. It needs to sense this feedback about every 10 seconds or it will set off an annoying popup on the instrument cluster to keep your hands on the steering wheel. To overcome this, like many contributing to this thread, I made a one-pound weight with a hook that I can safely place on the back side of the horizontal cross arm of the steering wheel which is sufficient enough to provide the necessary feedback. I’ve enjoyed driving hundreds of hands-free miles using ACC like this which takes a lot of stress out of driving long distances. I don’t know what more Blue Cruise offers except maybe auto lane changing but at $70+ per month, I’ll stick with ACC.

 

[Suns_PSD]

I have a job 1 '21 and BC has always a poorly executed gimic, imo.

I was able to renew for 3 years at $600, which put my monthly cost at < $17. Even that's too much really.

My truck did an update last night (first one I've seen in at least 1 year) and apparently, it's related to battery management. I tried to see which version of BC I currently have but could locate it nowhere, so any advice on that is appreciated. If it changes lanes, slowed for curves, didn't hug the left line really close to oncoming traffic, etc. it would be several times better.

Maybe it'll make a big leap up and then be worth, $25/ month or so. Otherwise, I'd let it expire.

I've had 2 good experiences with BC:
1) when I drive to go Mountain Biking I like to put on my pads and shoes while driving to the trails, and BC mostly allows me to do this.
2) trips to FL on I-10 have had large swaths that were hands free but I'd never trust it. I'll tell you that I was on that long ass bridge over the swamps and there was some construction and it got confused and jerked the wheel hard. Luckily I rest a left arm on my leg with my hand at the bottom of the steering wheel at all times and I caught it very quickly. Not even kidding, it hooked a sharp hard turn at speed right towards the guard rail.

 

[Ajzride]

Hopefully, this will help to sort out the difference between BC and ACC. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) uses the same basic elements of Blue Cruise (BC). ACC depends on clear lane markings in order to define a “lane”. Assuming the lane markings are clearly visible, ACC will keep your truck centered in the lane you’re in. It does not “ping pong” back and forth like some have suggested. It does a remarkable job of smooth, accurate driving. The “ping pong” that has been mentioned is a feature called “lane keeping” which is different than ACC “lane centering”. Lane keeping works at speeds of 40 mph and above by nudging the truck back into the lane if it starts to drift out. It will also vibrate the steering column to alert you. ACC with “lane centering” works at any speed and keeps the truck dead centered in the lane at all times. When engaged, ACC will automatically slow down to maintain a pre-selected, safe distance behind slower vehicles, matching its speed. In order to pass the slower vehicle, you must activate your turn signal which allows you to manually steer the truck into the clear lane. Once in the clear lane, when you return the turn signal to off, the truck will automatically resume auto driving and will return to the pre-selected speed. This is also a function of what is called TJA (traffic jam assist) that will automatically keep your truck creeping along in a traffic jam. And it will automatically bring the truck to a complete stop in that mode. Like some have mentioned, ACC does not watch your eyes with a camera inside but requires some feedback by sensing slight manual movement or torque of your hand(s) on the steering wheel. It needs to sense this feedback about every 10 seconds or it will set off an annoying popup on the instrument cluster to keep your hands on the steering wheel. To overcome this, like many contributing to this thread, I made a one-pound weight with a hook that I can safely place on the back side of the horizontal cross arm of the steering wheel which is sufficient enough to provide the necessary feedback. I’ve enjoyed driving hundreds of hands-free miles using ACC like this which takes a lot of stress out of driving long distances. I don’t know what more Blue Cruise offers except maybe auto lane changing but at $70+ per month, I’ll stick with ACC.

No.

 

[johnhbrandon]

No.

No? What are you saying No about?

 

[johnhbrandon]

I have a job 1 '21 and BC has always a poorly executed gimic, imo.

I was able to renew for 3 years at $600, which put my monthly cost at < $17. Even that's too much really.

My truck did an update last night (first one I've seen in at least 1 year) and apparently, it's related to battery management. I tried to see which version of BC I currently have but could locate it nowhere, so any advice on that is appreciated. If it changes lanes, slowed for curves, didn't hug the left line really close to oncoming traffic, etc. it would be several times better.

Maybe it'll make a big leap up and then be worth, $25/ month or so. Otherwise, I'd let it expire.

I've had 2 good experiences with BC:
1) when I drive to go Mountain Biking I like to put on my pads and shoes while driving to the trails, and BC mostly allows me to do this.
2) trips to FL on I-10 have had large swaths that were hands free but I'd never trust it. I'll tell you that I was on that long ass bridge over the swamps and there was some construction and it got confused and jerked the wheel hard. Luckily I rest a left arm on my leg with my hand at the bottom of the steering wheel at all times and I caught it very quickly. Not even kidding, it hooked a sharp hard turn at speed right towards the guard rail.

I don't have Blue Cruise, but I do have ACC which uses a subset of BC to keep the truck centered in the lane, maintain a set speed, and slow for traffic ahead matching the speed of the slower vehicle, operates similarly. As I said in my earlier post, if the lanes are clearly marked, ACC works very well. That said, one thing I've noticed is that if I'm driving in the outside (slow) lane, when passing off-ramps, the truck sometimes wants to exit off the freeway following the right side shoulder lines. This is only a problem where there isn't a dashed line at the off-ramp marking the running lane. I've noticed in many states that seems to have become a standard way of lane marking. I'm not totally aware of why Blue Cruise is only certified to work on a pre-defined number of highways, but it would seem that it would at least perform like ACC on non-approved highways. And of course, if there's construction going on and a lot of lane shifting, I never use any automation.

 

[Ajzride]

No? What are you saying No about?

Well, honestly quite a bit of it.

Hopefully, this will help to sort out the difference between BC and ACC. Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) uses the same basic elements of Blue Cruise (BC). ACC depends on clear lane markings in order to define a “lane”. Assuming the lane markings are clearly visible, ACC will keep your truck centered in the lane you’re in.

ACC stands for Adaptive Cruise Control. This module is responsible for actuating the accelerator and the brake to maintain the set speed. It also employs a radar module to detect vehicles in front of it, and will reduce speed to prevent a collision. ACC has absolutely nothing to do with steering control. Ford has been installing ACC in vehicles since 2015, a full 3 years before the first vehicle with LKA (lane keep assist), which was the first steering assistance feature from Ford. Many Ford vehicles even in 2024 have ACC but no lane assistance.

Based on your further comments below, I believe you are referring to LCA, which is Lane Centering Assist.

It does not “ping pong” back and forth like some have suggested. It does a remarkable job of smooth, accurate driving.

]

Assuming you mean LCA and not ACC, this may be your experience, but there are dozens of other with LCA that experience ping pong, and it's not a "subjective" experience. When analyzing the canbus network we can monitor the Canbus Signal LateralMotionControl2, and a subset of that signal is LatCtlPathOffst_L_Actl which is the detected distance (in meters) that the vehicle is from the center of the lane. There are times when you can watch this signal flip flop from positive to negative as the LCA signals struggle to get the vehicle in the center of the lane without over-correcting. While it's not the most common experience, I can show you plenty of trends of it happening with LCA engaged.

The “ping pong” that has been mentioned is a feature called “lane keeping” which is different than ACC “lane centering”. Lane keeping works at speeds of 40 mph and above by nudging the truck back into the lane if it starts to drift out. It will also vibrate the steering column to alert you.

I haven't heard anyone complain about LKA ping pong. LKA is so late reacting that no one would confuse it for a LCA. The part about nudging the car back towards center and buzzing the steering wheel is accurate.

ACC with “lane centering” works at any speed and keeps the truck dead centered in the lane at all times. When engaged, ACC will automatically slow down to maintain a pre-selected, safe distance behind slower vehicles, matching its speed. In order to pass the slower vehicle, you must activate your turn signal which allows you to manually steer the truck into the clear lane. Once in the clear lane, when you return the turn signal to off, the truck will automatically resume auto driving and will return to the pre-selected speed. This is also a function of what is called TJA (traffic jam assist) that will automatically keep your truck creeping along in a traffic jam. And it will automatically bring the truck to a complete stop in that mode. Like some have mentioned,

Mostly accurate

ACC does not watch your eyes with a camera inside but requires some feedback by sensing slight manual movement or torque of your hand(s) on the steering wheel. It needs to sense this feedback about every 10 seconds or it will set off an annoying popup on the instrument cluster to keep your hands on the steering wheel.

This part is true with an asterisk. Due to the weight trick you mention below, Ford has started enforcing eye monitoring even for hands on lane centering. Not everyone has this OTA yet, but it is in the queue. If you have a truck with LCA and ACC without a driver camera (all 2024 have them, 2021-2023 depends on trim) then you can still use the weight trick.

To overcome this, like many contributing to this thread, I made a one-pound weight with a hook that I can safely place on the back side of the horizontal cross arm of the steering wheel which is sufficient enough to provide the necessary feedback. I’ve enjoyed driving hundreds of hands-free miles using ACC like this which takes a lot of stress out of driving long distances. I don’t know what more Blue Cruise offers except maybe auto lane changing but at $70+ per month, I’ll stick with ACC.

I agree with you that BlueCruise is not an improvement over LCA. I've had numerous people try to tell me that Bluecruise has some secret sauce (enhanced GPS for better position detection, better camera, etc) that LCA does not have, but the part numbers are all the same and after analyzing hundreds of Hours of canbus data for LCA and BlueCruise routes, I am very confident the only thing that BlueCruise does is use the GPS location and subscription status to toggle the bit TJA_D_STAT from 4 to 7, which displays the hands free UI and disables checking for hands on in the power steering control module.[/QUOTE]

 

[SilverSpur]

I've had my new F150 Platinum for 3 days. LOVE it. I have Bluecruise free for 90 days and I've tried it out and it's pretty cool. However, I'm not quite sure about the $75/mo fee once my trial is up. If it were just 20-30 I would just get it and forget about it.

My question is what all does Bluecruise do that you would not get just using adaptive cruise? Am I correct that it still slows the vehicle down when someone's in front of you and keeps you centered in the lane?

Do you think Bluecruise is worth it? Why or why not? TIA

From what I understand about blue cruise is it doesnt interfere with adaptive cruise. For a $75 a month fee and probable use it 6 times a year, not a value.

 

[johnhbrandon]

Well, honestly quite a bit of it.



ACC stands for Adaptive Cruise Control. This module is responsible for actuating the accelerator and the brake to maintain the set speed. It also employs a radar module to detect vehicles in front of it, and will reduce speed to prevent a collision. ACC has absolutely nothing to do with steering control. Ford has been installing ACC in vehicles since 2015, a full 3 years before the first vehicle with LKA (lane keep assist), which was the first steering assistance feature from Ford. Many Ford vehicles even in 2024 have ACC but no lane assistance.

Based on your further comments below, I believe you are referring to LCA, which is Lane Centering Assist.

]

Assuming you mean LCA and not ACC, this may be your experience, but there are dozens of other with LCA that experience ping pong, and it's not a "subjective" experience. When analyzing the canbus network we can monitor the Canbus Signal LateralMotionControl2, and a subset of that signal is LatCtlPathOffst_L_Actl which is the detected distance (in meters) that the vehicle is from the center of the lane. There are times when you can watch this signal flip flop from positive to negative as the LCA signals struggle to get the vehicle in the center of the lane without over-correcting. While it's not the most common experience, I can show you plenty of trends of it happening with LCA engaged.



I haven't heard anyone complain about LKA ping pong. LKA is so late reacting that no one would confuse it for a LCA. The part about nudging the car back towards center and buzzing the steering wheel is accurate.

Sorry, it's been a while since I installed the features more specifically Co-Pilot Assist 2.0 in truck and I simply forgot to use the actual name. My truck, a previously owned MY22 Lariat 3.5 EB, did not have Co-Pilot Assist 2.0 or ACC. I literally had to procure and install the radar module and perform all the Forscan mods to get it to work. There is a thread on this forum titled "Adding Co-Pilot Assist 2.0 with Forscan" dealing specifically with that feature. As you mentioned, Ford is actively changing the way things operate constantly, so what works for one may not work the same or at all for another.

Where I previously mentioned ACC, I should have been more specific and used the term Co-Pilot Assist 2.0 that does indeed have all the features I mentioned in my first post including LCA (Lane Centering Assist). You are correct that ACC by itself does not have anything to do with steering.

Co-Pilot Assist 2.0 with LCA engaged does not ping pong. Like I said in my post, it drives the truck very smoothly and does not drift back and forth in the lane. As the name suggests, it is like having a co-pilot doing the driving. LKA (Lane Keeping Assist) will ping pong and vibrate the steering column if it detects lane drifting. LKA can always be in the on mode without cruise control activated, but it only operates at or above 40 mph. Or, it can be disengaged altogether. I sometimes do disengage it if I'm in a construction zone where there's a lot of lane shifting or the lanes are real narrow

Since I have ACC (including radar distancing), my truck can operate in adaptive cruise control mode without LCA or LKA. To get into this mode, I press the LKA/LCA button to turn off LKA and LCA. At that point, if the cruise control button is pressed, the truck will be strictly in manual steering but with adaptive cruise control active. There will be no lane keeping or centering. The distance between my truck and the vehicle in front is determined by the distance select button on the steering wheel just above the LKA/LCA button.

The weight trick works for my truck since it does not have the eye monitoring camera. I wouldn't mind having the eye monitoring instead of having to exert some torque on the steering wheel since I always have my eyes on the road anyway. The camera could watch me eating a sandwich or sipping a soft drink. That would be great. That theoretically would allow hands-free as long as I'm paying attention. Part of the stress of driving is having to have a hand or hands on the wheel at all times especially just to satisfy Co-Pilot Assist 2.0.

Last, when we pay as much as we do for these trucks and all the options like BC, it doesn't seem fair to have to pay again for a feature you already paid for when you bought the truck. BC is supposed to be somewhat more intelligent than Co-Pilot Assist 2.0 in that it supposedly uses GPS to predict upcoming road changes and curves. But it only fully operates on specific roads and highways. Co-Pilot Assist 2.0 operates on any road or highway that has clear lane markings.

 

[Ajzride]

Sorry, it's been a while since I installed the features more specifically Co-Pilot Assist 2.0 in truck and I simply forgot to use the actual name. .

And I apologize if I came across as terse. I'm traveling and crunched for time. But it doesn't do other readers a lot of good when you make a post saying you want to clear things up and reduce confusion, then get the terms wrong.

Co-Pilot Assist 2.0 with LCA engaged does not ping pong. Like I said in my post, it drives the truck very smoothly and does not drift back and forth in the lane.

I understand you don't have ping pong with LCA, but that does not mean others have the same experience, consider yourself fortunate.

A lot of factors can play into ping pong. Road width, road stripe quality, road crown/roll, tire wear, alignment, even weight distribution (heavy loads or trailers shift weight off the front tires, reducing contact patch and making steering twitchy). When I get home I can pull logs where I have analyzed the canbus data for owners who have really bad ping pong using LCA.

 

[dochawk]

V1.4 also will adjust your position in the lane if you come up on a semi in the adajacent lane, moving you over a bit to provide a bit greater separation. I

Now, if it will launch rockets when a semi hops in front of you at 35 on a 6% grade, requiring emergency braking, I'm in . . .

 

[Ajzride]

Now, if it will launch rockets when a semi hops in front of you at 35 on a 6% grade, requiring emergency braking, I'm in . . .

That's the 007A package.

 

[Kurt V]

My experience after two years of use. They do the same thing except BC monitors your hands on the wheel.

In my case BC will take control for about five miles then requires you to take control for 30 seconds or so and takes back control. Anoying so I started using the small weight on the steering wheel to emulate driver input. Works much better on long trips. Can go forever without touching the wheel. Both closely monitors your eyes on the road.

I am watching this thread as my subscription expires in a year. And I wonder if after it lapses.... will I be able to just use the weight on the wheel and get the same effect.

I do the same with lane centering…that is adding a 1.5 lb ankle weight. Only practical on open roads that don’t have a lot of curves.

 

[PNGento]

Comma is light years better than Blue cruise. It won’t work in a 2024 unfortunately.

I have watched a gazillion YouTube videos on the comma and if I had the money, I'd get one in a heart beat...Ajzride, you've really done a great job bringing this to others. But, I wasn't aware that it wouldn't work in a 2024. Can you explain why not? I've got a 2022, so doesn't affect me, but still interested as to why not in a 2024.

 

[Ajzride]

I have watched a gazillion YouTube videos on the comma and if I had the money, I'd get one in a heart beat...Ajzride, you've really done a great job bringing this to others. But, I wasn't aware that it wouldn't work in a 2024. Can you explain why not? I've got a 2022, so doesn't affect me, but still interested as to why not in a 2024.

the IPMA, PSCM, ABS and a few other “safety and security” critical modules on the 2024+ models use encrypted communications. Until someone breaks the encryption, the comma can’t send alternative signals to the PSCM.

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