Growing pains going from Autopilot to Bluecruise

[Shrike]

I'm trying to figure out if what I'm experiencing is user error, or the way the Lightning is intended to work while using cruise control / Bluecruise.

Coming from a Tesla, I'm used to two levels of assistance, adaptive cruise control (ACC), and ACC + lane keeping. Once lane keeping is disengaged, it doesn't re-engage unless the driver affirmatively reengages it. A driver can use ACC exclusively, without the lane keeping, just by toggling the Autopilot stalk.

I've only had my Lightning for a few days, but I can't figure out whether you can go from "ACC only" to "ACC + lane keeping" via the cruise control button, like with Tesla. It seems like sometimes the truck performs lane keeping and sometimes it doesn't.

This morning was particularly frustrating. I started out trying to use ACC + lanekeeping, but tried to switch to just ACC after lanekeeping disengaged and reengaged on its own several times. It felt like there was an invisible hand on the steering wheel, which would alternate between trying to steer and letting me plow into a road barrier. No combination of buttons seemed to work for just ACC, so I just manually took over after a while.

So to all those who came from Teslas: is there a way to turn on ACC without lanekeeping, without going through the menu and disabling lanekeeping? Or is it the case that "cruise control" is inclusive of ACC and lanekeeping together, and the only way to disable the latter is by toggling the setting to "off" via the center screen? I'm assuming it's the former and that I just can't figure it out.

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[chillaban]

Yeah there’s a steering wheel button that looks like a car between two lines. Pressing that will turn off all of the lane assist and then you get pure ACC.


The way BlueCruise works is meant to be cooperative with the driver. If it doesn’t say Hands Free, it always expects you to be trying to steer. It’s different compared to Autopilot but in my experience you eventually get used to it and grow to like it even. It’s like your job is reduced to slight relative steering. Like “oh it’s mostly following the curve, just a slight nudge to the left would be perfect”

 

[PV2EV]

I don't know Autopliot, but am perplexed by the intermittent functionality of BC. I have taken to disabling lane keeping via the steering wheel button once I turn on CC.

 

[Viet658]

I've noticed BlueCruise Handsfree will just give up and require me to take over pretty often on the freeways whereas Tesla Autopilot worked pretty much all the time on the freeways.

 

[Shrike]

Yeah there’s a steering wheel button that looks like a car between two lines. Pressing that will turn off all of the lane assist and then you get pure ACC.


The way BlueCruise works is meant to be cooperative with the driver. If it doesn’t say Hands Free, it always expects you to be trying to steer. It’s different compared to Autopilot but in my experience you eventually get used to it and grow to like it even. It’s like your job is reduced to slight relative steering. Like “oh it’s mostly following the curve, just a slight nudge to the left would be perfect”

Thanks! This is helpful.

 

[queuewho]

Came from a 2018 model 3, and I gotta say blue cruise hands free is better all around for me. TACC is better too. I constantly had TACC on my tesla slam the brakes. The slightest movement from a vehicle around me would trigger it.

 

[chillaban]

I've noticed BlueCruise Handsfree will just give up and require me to take over pretty often on the freeways whereas Tesla Autopilot worked pretty much all the time on the freeways.

Yeah a lot of it is just a mentality difference. BlueCruise wants to just assist the human in charge. Autopilot is basically a prototype self driving car that wants to do the whole driving task, but it is legally labeled an assistance feature because the human is legally responsible.


The example I always give is: suppose a situation occurs where the computer thinks it must slam on the brakes and suddenly swerve. Autopilot would go ahead and do that because it thinks it is fully in charge, you can override it if you disagree. BC would likely just ignore it or throw some beeps because it assumes you are primarily in charge and it shouldn’t take any drastic actions, that is your job.


They both have their pros and cons. Sure one day in the future when Autopilot is perfect, they are the path to a robotaxi without a driver. But right now, when I’m driving with family or strangers in the car, Autopilot’s erratic behavior can scare the crap out of them and I prefer BC over Autopilot because of passenger comfort and less surprise.

 

[Viet658]

Yeah a lot of it is just a mentality difference. BlueCruise wants to just assist the human in charge. Autopilot is basically a prototype self driving car that wants to do the whole driving task, but it is legally labeled an assistance feature because the human is legally responsible.


The example I always give is: suppose a situation occurs where the computer thinks it must slam on the brakes and suddenly swerve. Autopilot would go ahead and do that because it thinks it is fully in charge, you can override it if you disagree. BC would likely just ignore it or throw some beeps because it assumes you are primarily in charge and it shouldn’t take any drastic actions, that is your job.


They both have their pros and cons. Sure one day in the future when Autopilot is perfect, they are the path to a robotaxi without a driver. But right now, when I’m driving with family or strangers in the car, Autopilot’s erratic behavior can scare the crap out of them and I prefer BC over Autopilot because of passenger comfort and less surprise.

I guess I'm in the opposite camp. I liked how Autopilot worked more completely. Sometimes with BlueCruise you don't even know it gave up which can be scary. The alerts are too subtle. Like you said BlueCruise requires full attention because it gives up often whereas Autopilot might lure you into a false sense of security since it works almost all the time.

 

[chillaban]

I guess I'm in the opposite camp. I liked how Autopilot worked more completely. Sometimes with BlueCruise you don't even know it gave up which can be scary. The alerts are too subtle. Like you said BlueCruise requires full attention because it gives up often whereas Autopilot might lure you into a false sense of security since it works almost all the time.

I do feel BlueCruise (especially since Ford calls everything BlueCruise) is a little confusing in that there’s multiple modes of operation that require a different level of human engagement, and the transitions between them are too confusing. Sometimes it’s just the blue background disappears. There’s like 5 different alarm tones depending on situation, etc.

 

[brewski]

I guess I'm in the opposite camp. I liked how Autopilot worked more completely. Sometimes with BlueCruise you don't even know it gave up which can be scary. The alerts are too subtle. Like you said BlueCruise requires full attention because it gives up often whereas Autopilot might lure you into a false sense of security since it works almost all the time.

I actually find the Tesla alerts too subtle (no idea on BC yet).
The world I come from, if the autopilot disengages its bells-and-lights vs hey man...I may have just turned off.

 

[Viet658]

I do feel BlueCruise (especially since Ford calls everything BlueCruise) is a little confusing in that there’s multiple modes of operation that require a different level of human engagement, and the transitions between them are too confusing. Sometimes it’s just the blue background disappears. There’s like 5 different alarm tones depending on situation, etc.

Totally agree on the confusing various modes of BlueCruise. For me I'd rather not even use the hands-on version because it requires torque instead of sensing my hands and it requires that torque very often. In my opinion Rivian has the best sensors for hands-on since they are capacitive I believe, they only require touch not a torque. I was hoping BlueCruise hands-free would be more consistent then I would be able to use it more often. As it is now handsfree gives up too often for me.

 

[chillaban]

I actually find the Tesla alerts too subtle (no idea on BC yet).
The world I come from, if the autopilot disengages its bells-and-lights vs hey man...I may have just turned off.

At least the Tesla one is the same chime always. The two tone “down” means AP is no longer steering at all and two tone up means AP engaged and is steering.

BC has like 8 different ones, “Canceled”, “red triangle because the car is suddenly outside the lane”, “red steering wheel because it thinks you’re not taking over”, I don’t even remember the other ones. Each has a not memorable sound.

Totally agree on the confusing various modes of BlueCruise. For me I'd rather not even use the hands-on version because it requires torque instead of sensing my hands. In my opinion Rivian has the best sensors for hands-on since they are capacitive I believe, they only require touch not a torque. I was hoping BlueCruise hands-free would be more consistent then I would be able to use it more often. As it is now handsfree gives up too often for me.

Yeah I am disappointed too that BC doesn’t have capacitative hand sensing. Cadillac Super Cruise is also capacitative.

 

[Pitbull2o08]

Love the analogy that the human is still in charge with BC. I disagree that the notices are too subtle. If paying attention, the screen alerts you to all changes that are being made. It's not a bad system and I seriously push mine to it's limits by taking my eyes off (looking down, or out the window, in a safe way) to find out what those limits are. I'm impressed with it, and really enjoy long drives with it.

 

[SilverBrewer]

I’ve had blue cruise hands free for a year and sand have about 20k miles of those I’d say 15k are hands free. It’s actually pretty simple once you learn what the truck is looking for, sharp turns, your driving, unmapped roads, your driving, entrance ramps, your driving. Once I learned what it was after I fell in love it with.

I also had a model 3 and I found it worse than BC if you didn’t have the enhanced AP such as the it requiring driver input and then you turn it off because the slightest force disable it.

my favorite system yet has been Tesla enhanced autopilot followed by GM super cruise

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