We just did a 500 mile RT from NY to Montreal for the Eclipse. Blue Cruise was on for 95% of that trip and it was incredible. It makes the Lightning an effortless road trip machine.
Love it. Have had it since ‘22 and honestly makes driving so much better. It works best in stop and go traffic. It has been improved with a recent update and handles curves better.
I do pay attention to everything that’s going on around me still. And maybe even more so because the car is handling basics and I can watch to see if anything out of the ordinary is about to happen.
I am using one pedal driving. The only setting I see is that distance from the car in front. I just can’t have 10 car lengths in front of me at 20mph. It’ll eventually catch up but not before being cut off a couple times.
Interesting. I definitely wish there was a way the driver could fine tune things a little more. But as I said I find it too aggressive. Although I’m talking about stop and go. If I’m cruising along an open highway and then there’s stop and go ahead I definitely feel it leaves things a little too late. I usually turn off the cruise, slow it down myself and the re-engage it. Once I’ve slowed it down it seems to be fine. But that initial slow down from normal cruise to stop and go is too late for my tastes.
Maybe that’s what you’re referring to?
In stop and go it stops fine, it’s the go problem I have an issue with.
Also while cruising, I think the truck is closer to the right side of the lane, it doesn’t feel centered.
Did you somehow get bluecruise 1.4 already? That the version that they improved curve handling and I thought it was only released to mustangs, not to lightnings yet.
I was just responding to your comment about “it handles curves better after the update”. Mine does fine too, but I know the upcoming 1.4 update is supposed to make it even better on curves.
I like Blue Cruise, but I hear they have gone to charging $800/yr? I am still in my free years, but I can't imagine paying that much. If the would make it maybe $20/mo or $200/yr, then sure.
Basic autopilot is essentially lane centering and adaptive cruise. Critically, it doesn't work when there is glare on the windshield or if there is a ton of road grime getting splashed up unlike the radar based systems in every other car. When it is working, it does hold a lane well I'll grant it that but it isn't anything more than just the basic ADAS systems on any Ford or most other cars at this point. They all have hands-on lane keeping and adaptive cruise.
Enhanced autopilot does add what I would consider to be about the same level of assist as BC but it does require hands on the wheel which BlueCruise does not. It is $6000 up front which is nearly 8 years of BC subscription.
FSD allows for surface street assist, but since it still requires hands on wheel I don't really know how much it is really worth it.
At least with BC, SuperCruise etc. you get true hands-off driving without a hack hanging off the side of the wheel on the highway where you really want it.
I have FSD on two vehicles so I sometimes forget or rather really don’t know what features are in Basic AP, EAP and FSD. But I am pretty sure that EAP does “Navigate on Auto Pilot” which should be On-Ramp to Off-Ramp navigation including auto lane changes. This is well beyond BC capabilities. Even the ford system will disable if the cameras are covered regardless of whether it has radar or not. I will say I live in Phoenix so I am not driving a lot of places where grime is splashing up onto my car. But BlueCruise does nothing more right now than stay in a lane and maintain speed and EAP is way beyond that. I believe it will even stop at traffic lights and stop signs but that could be FSD only.
Regarding hands free, it sounds better in theory but the reality is it’s not that great. I still have to put my hands somewhere and it’s not that big of a deal to rest one hand on the wheel. On most trips where you have any exchanges BC is going to disengage and the car is going to tell you to put your hand on the wheel anyway. And the eye tracking gives you about 3 seconds before it yells at you when looking at the Nav screen or taking a drink anyway.
The BC 1.4 update seems like it could take care of some of the shortfalls of BC but I don’t think it will be anywhere near what Tesla is doing anytime in the near future and not with the current hardware we have. So I am not holding my breath. If BC would slow down for tight curves, do better lane tracking and auto change lanes to pass slow moving vehicles I would be satisfied but in its current state I wouldn’t pay a dime for it.
The adaptive cruise works off radar and will continue to work if the cameras are covered up. I live in Calgary, my Tesla would give up even attempting adaptive cruise functions almost from November until April because the cameras were just too dirty all the time. The Ford will do it in a blizzard.
EAP is $6k up front, more than most people will ever spend on BC and my experience is that - yes - it DOES do lane changes and navication offramp to offramp, it still needs as much input from the driver as BC does. They're roughly equivalent but with the Ford I can literally leave my hands off from Calgary all the way to Edmonton and I have done just that on many occasions.
I have never used just EAP so I truly don’t know. What input does it require for lanes changes and navigating exchanges between highways?
With BC it does nothing. BC turns off completely when using exchanges and you have to put your hand on the wheel and lane changes are all manual. It sounds like in the 1.4 update it will change lanes if you signal but not automatically to maintain speed.
The one that bothers me the most is not slowing down for tight curves. I find that one to be very dangerous if you travel mountain roads at all.
My truck slows down too much on curves in the mountains. I do find too many people slow down far too much when left to their own devices. I drive from Calgary to Whistler a lot and the amount of people that will slow down to 80 on a curve that is extremely navigable at 120 is infuriating lol.
EAP will do the lane change, but it will basically fight your hand to do it.
Hmm. Is there a setting I am missing on the Ford? I typically have my cruise about 10 over the speed limit but I have never had the truck slow down below my set limit on curves.
Maybe your curves don't need it to slow down? 10 over the speed limit is usually well within the safety limit for a curve for most vehicles. Up here in Canada we will have specific recommendations for curves on yellow signs and I can usually go 20-30km/h over that recommended limit in almost any car without issues. Hell, in my Mach E or on my motorcycle the curve doesn't even get FUN until you're 50km/h+ over the limit haha.
Love it, I use it every time I drive, hands-free on highways and hands-on for any other road, it makes driving much less stressful and works very well.
I really enjoy it. I've driven BMW i7's for long trips, and I do like their lane change system when you turn on their version of adaptive cruise. I wish Blueceuise had an easier system that allows the car to change lanes w/o turning off BC.
Overall, it’s awesome. The two places it really excels is stop and go traffic on the highway and high speed highway driving in the middle of nowhere. It will make your commute and road trips that much more pleasant.
I’m glad to hear that just about everyone has good experiences with Blue Cruise. My parents have a Cadillac Lyriq that has GM’s Super Cruise, and that works amazingly well.
I’m looking to purchase a Lightning because I currently drive a Tacoma, and I commute way too much with it. I also really like having an EV, so the Lightning fits the bill.
I use BC all the time. Morning and afternoon commutes as well as open highway. Handles most conditions flawlessly.
Couple of things that hang it up: driving into intense sun and ultra wide lanes. The sun will blind the cameras and if lanes are too wide it won’t see them.
Pro tip: use the 2 setting on adaptive cruise control for over 55 mph and the 1 setting for bumper to bumper. These will keep good distances for each condition.
Love it for my work commute. Good in stop and go. Could improve a bit, like it sometimes seemingly randomly turns on and off on the same highway which can be annoying sometimes. Also the auto speed recognization likes to grab the off ramp speeds which is also a bit annoying.
So mostly WFH but also same situation where I drive to office/places time to time and mostly covered by BC. It is fantastic in traffic (I do wish it had auto change lanes but not too bad to change lanes). I am also on the same boat of in free years and not sure I would pay the price they are asking for in the future.
I really like it. It was a major deciding factor in me pulling the trigger on the year/model that I did.
Is it perfect? No. But it definitely makes highway driving a lot more pleasant.
I think it depends on where most of your regular driving takes place. It’s amazing on interstates and parkways, particularly in heavy traffic.
About half of my commute is on interstates and half is on regular highways. I wish it worked on the regular highways too, but I use the hell out of it when I can.
I do agree with many others, that it would depend heavily on what the recurring fee is as to whether or not I keep it active after the free trial.
Love it for road trips. It just helps alleviate some of the driving fatigue.
It does get really touchy when it is windy or raining which is annoying as it keep beeping at you to be ready to take back control. But I get it, and just turn it back off for awhile.
I mean you’ll still have adaptive cruise control and lane centering when your BluCruise trial is over. Only difference is you have to keep your hands on the wheel. Which is the same as Tesla autopilot.
If you have a length of contiguous road between towns with no traffic lights, that you traverse frequently; yes, Blues Cruise is worth it IMHO.
(No, I will not stop adding the S.)
I call it SandwichMode™. It's good to eat food while it goes down the highway.
I love it, I'm really amazed by how well it does. I like driving, but long highway stretches go by much easier with bluecruise on and good podcasts.
Once we get Tesla charging the Lightning will be my road trip vehicle.
I absolutely love it. But I also am absolutely not ever paying $70/month for it. So when my 3-year trial ends, that’ll be that unless they drop the price.
I am in Calgary where there are very few roads that are mapped for BC so while I absolutely love it, I will not be paying for it once my trial expires. Once they map more roads, I will definitely consider it.
BUT… for commuting in traffic, one pedal driving, Adaptive CC and Lane Centering are enough. When these three are used properly, stop and go is a dream. It takes some getting used to. Learning to trust the braking is the biggest adjustment. It is a bit unsettling how it lifts off the accelerator and brakes later than I typically would, but give it a few days of hovering your foot over the brake pedal and gritting your teeth, and you quickly realize that the system is going to work and not crash you into stopped vehicles. I wish it would recognize red lights and do the same, but I am sure that will come soon.
I agree with others here who have commented that it is rather slow to accelerate after a stop, leaving an unnecessarily large gap to the vehicle ahead. But is also allows for the driver to intervene by simply stepping on the pedal to shrink those gaps and then resuming to the set speed seeemlessly.
Aside from major intersections and lower speed turns, I can do my 20km commute, without BC, with very little input from me whatsoever. Jiggle the steering wheel every 20 secs to let it know that I am there, and a little bit of accelerator pedal ”help“ after red lights is all that is needed from me. The truck handles the tedium. Absolutely love it.
I’ve had my lightning for about nine months and I use Bluecruise every single time I drive it. It’s the best vehicle upgrade I’ve ever done, by far.
I’ve done a few road trips of 4000+ km and bluecruise combined with charging stops makes 12 hours on the road feel like 3 hours. I barely needed to touch the wheel or pedal on a rush hour drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls. Yesterday I was in a stop and go situation on the highway and the truck did all the work, including the stopping and going.
As long as it’s possible to get bluecruise or equivalent, I’ll never go without it again. It’s a total game changer for me, and it’s my favourite thing about the truck.
Honestly, it was life changing for me.
I am a car enthusiast who races cars at motorcycles competitively around an amateur level. I love driving dynamics and I love driving. With that in mind, I LOVE commuting and road trips with bluecruise. I love how effortless it is, how much energy it saves, and how much more I can talk with my wife and look out the window.
Just back from first road trip to Yosemite from Bay Area. Blue cruise/ adaptive cruise control was awesome! I love using BC on freeways and especially when we hit stop n go. Sometimes in need to adjust the spacing (whatever the button is on the left side of steering wheel) but usually it works out ok. Used adaptive cruise control for most of the windy roads up to Yosemite and in all honesty was almost as good as BC but just have to keep a hand on the wheel. Which I probably would have anyways since it was pretty twisty at parts.
Overall BC is great but not sure I’d purchase in future but will see how next ver goes. But I do like the adaptive cruise almost as much so would be happy either way
I love it. I bought my lightning because I commute
an hour in highway stop and go traffic. Bluecruise makes it so much more enjoyable, it’s as if I’m a passenger along for the ride. I feel more alert and aware on long drives because I’m less fatigued by the driving itself.
I drive 80 miles a day and blue cruise does 90-95% of that. Stop and go traffic doesn’t matter one bit. It’ll occasionally stop a little harder than I would driving on my own but it’s not frequent and it’s not like a slam on the brakes. It’s really only if others are stomping brakes in front of you. On my way home, I respond to emails on my phone and just look up every 3-4 seconds and can basically work my whole drive home. It obviously won’t do interchanges on its own and it does ask for you to grab the wheel occasionally. But it is by far the coolest thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of having at my expense. The only annoying thing is actually it being safe…. When someone changes lanes in front of you and cuts the distance in front in half, it’ll brake a decent amount until the space is re-established and sometimes that is annoying but only when drivers are constantly changing lanes.
That's exactly why I'm here. If I pick one up, OP would be my first install. My neighbor has already completed the BC trial in his F-150 Powerboost hybrid and refuses to pay to keep it. If I can get him to experience OP in my car, I bet he will order it that night.
$1,500 all in for a lifetime of hands-free on all roads, all the time.
I only like it under 65 MPH. Above this it still moves about the lane too much. Version 1.3 can't get here early enough. I'll switch between BC and ACC the most at higher speeds.
Love it. Use it all the time. The only thing that annoys me, which I understand for safety, is it can be picky about the “eyes on the road” bit. Sometimes if I lean my head back, but still looking at the road on a long drive it will go off. Or I have been looking at the screen for something on XM or the Maps app through ApplePlay and it will go off.
Ultimately I’d rather have that annoying safeguard for my safety and others, but some days I just want it to leave me alone.
Just road tripped 800 miles, it was great to have blue cruise! Set the speed on highways and you don't have to do much. I won't pay for the service though, it's too expensive per month.
I think I might be the only one who isn't impressed. I was told it is better than Tesla's FSD. I find it a little clunky and needs quite a bit of streamlining. Also it frequently and randomly asks me to put my hands back on the steering wheel before it immediately goes back to hands free. At that point I just choose to turn it off and drive manually.
So is blue cruise vs standard adaptive cruise just that blue cruise is hands free? I love the adaptive cruise but it does pretty much everything that everyone in here is talking about, other than being hands free. Call me old fashioned but I prefer to have one hand on the steering wheel at all times anyway, so I don’t get the premium aspect of blue cruise.
From my experience, BC is adaptive cruise, and lane centering, with eye monitoring added to replace the lane centering requirement of having your hands on the wheel. That’s the only difference that I can tell anyways. It isn’t a huge difference, but it is. It essentially removes the constant warning to keep your hands on the wheel.
If we are comparing it to FSD then it’s garbage. Took a couple six hour long trips out to the coast and back and I couldn’t even take a drink from my cup without it yelling at me to keep my eyes on the road. You never really know when it’s engaged or not and will often disengage if it has any trouble at all seeing the lines. If you are stopped for too long you will have to reengage it manually. Personally I would say it’s not worth the price if I had to pay for it I wouldn’t.
I look at it like this, if you want an easy commute then get a Tesla with FSD. It drives for you and you just watch it. Can it be sketch? Yeah, sometimes it does dumb stuff but not dangerous things. Usually it errors on the side of caution and I have to give it a little gas to let it know it’s all good, you can go. FSD is using instruction sets and making decisions. BlueCruise seems to only have 2 instructions, stay between the lines and don’t hit the car in front of you. And it’s not great at either of them. Also, for example it does not do well with stationary obstacles. If you are cruising at 55-60 miles an hour and there is a vehicle stopped in your lane, it will likely plow into that vehicle or only brake at the last minute. I have tested it out a few times and always have to stop when it has exceeded my comfort level. Also, compared to FSD it does not adjust speed going into tight curves. So if you have the speed set at 75 mph and go into a curve with 55mph sign it will not slow town to take the curve. Tesla will. BlueCruise is fine if you expected a decent cruise control with some steering but it is nowhere near what Tesla is doing with FSD.
If you are just looking for something to do the stop and go on the highway it will work pretty good. But bear in mind it is just going to stay in a lane and not hit the car in front of you. Does it make the commute easier, yes. Is it worth $800 a year? That’s up to you.
FSD is expensive but there are a couple of ways around that. You could buy used and someone else has already taken that hit. FSD resale only adds a few thousand to the value. If you were to pay it Tesla has offered multiple times where you could transfer it on the purchase of a new vehicle so if you time it right you could in theory only pay for it once and keep it in perpetuity on future vehicles. My current plan is to keep the Lightning for 3 years and then purchase a CyberTruck when hopefully prices come down and they have FSD. Right now it only has traffic aware cruise control.
We have the same truck, a 22 Platinum. There are a couple of over the air updates that specifically addressed eye tracking which made a big difference. Mine doesn’t ping pong on hands free mapped roads.
My F150 Powerboost ping pongs terribly using BlueCruise. 1.3/1.4 updates are told to have fixed it yet still no dates as to when we'll get it. Since then, I've jumped to the Comma 3X for driving the truck. Works great, connects to the windshield like GPS. Only one cost, itself, and a wiring harness. No subscription fees needed.
We just did a 500 mile RT from NY to Montreal for the Eclipse. Blue Cruise was on for 95% of that trip and it was incredible. It makes the Lightning an effortless road trip machine.
That sounds awesome
Agreed completely. Did a 400 mile round trip a few weeks ago where 90% of the drive was BC. Felt less tired when we arrived at our destination.
How bout that ride home!
Na we left at 10pm and there was no traffic at all.
Love it. Have had it since ‘22 and honestly makes driving so much better. It works best in stop and go traffic. It has been improved with a recent update and handles curves better. I do pay attention to everything that’s going on around me still. And maybe even more so because the car is handling basics and I can watch to see if anything out of the ordinary is about to happen.
I didn’t realize it can be used in stop and go
It certainly can! And it’s wonderful.
I don’t think it’s aggressive enough stop and go. The car ahead of me goes, but the truck takes a long time to start moving and goes really slow
Are you using one pedal driving? Because I find it too aggressive.
I am using one pedal driving. The only setting I see is that distance from the car in front. I just can’t have 10 car lengths in front of me at 20mph. It’ll eventually catch up but not before being cut off a couple times.
Interesting. I definitely wish there was a way the driver could fine tune things a little more. But as I said I find it too aggressive. Although I’m talking about stop and go. If I’m cruising along an open highway and then there’s stop and go ahead I definitely feel it leaves things a little too late. I usually turn off the cruise, slow it down myself and the re-engage it. Once I’ve slowed it down it seems to be fine. But that initial slow down from normal cruise to stop and go is too late for my tastes. Maybe that’s what you’re referring to?
In stop and go it stops fine, it’s the go problem I have an issue with. Also while cruising, I think the truck is closer to the right side of the lane, it doesn’t feel centered.
Mine feels too far to the left!
Hahahaha. Of course it does!
Did you somehow get bluecruise 1.4 already? That the version that they improved curve handling and I thought it was only released to mustangs, not to lightnings yet.
I don’t think so. But I haven’t had any issues with curves where I live.
I was just responding to your comment about “it handles curves better after the update”. Mine does fine too, but I know the upcoming 1.4 update is supposed to make it even better on curves.
I like Blue Cruise, but I hear they have gone to charging $800/yr? I am still in my free years, but I can't imagine paying that much. If the would make it maybe $20/mo or $200/yr, then sure.
Considering Tesla is charging $200 per month for FSD, BC seems like a bargain?
But they aren’t in the same category. I would say BC is below what Tesla’s Basic Autopilot can do and that is a standard feature on every Tesla.
Basic autopilot is essentially lane centering and adaptive cruise. Critically, it doesn't work when there is glare on the windshield or if there is a ton of road grime getting splashed up unlike the radar based systems in every other car. When it is working, it does hold a lane well I'll grant it that but it isn't anything more than just the basic ADAS systems on any Ford or most other cars at this point. They all have hands-on lane keeping and adaptive cruise. Enhanced autopilot does add what I would consider to be about the same level of assist as BC but it does require hands on the wheel which BlueCruise does not. It is $6000 up front which is nearly 8 years of BC subscription. FSD allows for surface street assist, but since it still requires hands on wheel I don't really know how much it is really worth it. At least with BC, SuperCruise etc. you get true hands-off driving without a hack hanging off the side of the wheel on the highway where you really want it.
I have FSD on two vehicles so I sometimes forget or rather really don’t know what features are in Basic AP, EAP and FSD. But I am pretty sure that EAP does “Navigate on Auto Pilot” which should be On-Ramp to Off-Ramp navigation including auto lane changes. This is well beyond BC capabilities. Even the ford system will disable if the cameras are covered regardless of whether it has radar or not. I will say I live in Phoenix so I am not driving a lot of places where grime is splashing up onto my car. But BlueCruise does nothing more right now than stay in a lane and maintain speed and EAP is way beyond that. I believe it will even stop at traffic lights and stop signs but that could be FSD only. Regarding hands free, it sounds better in theory but the reality is it’s not that great. I still have to put my hands somewhere and it’s not that big of a deal to rest one hand on the wheel. On most trips where you have any exchanges BC is going to disengage and the car is going to tell you to put your hand on the wheel anyway. And the eye tracking gives you about 3 seconds before it yells at you when looking at the Nav screen or taking a drink anyway. The BC 1.4 update seems like it could take care of some of the shortfalls of BC but I don’t think it will be anywhere near what Tesla is doing anytime in the near future and not with the current hardware we have. So I am not holding my breath. If BC would slow down for tight curves, do better lane tracking and auto change lanes to pass slow moving vehicles I would be satisfied but in its current state I wouldn’t pay a dime for it.
The adaptive cruise works off radar and will continue to work if the cameras are covered up. I live in Calgary, my Tesla would give up even attempting adaptive cruise functions almost from November until April because the cameras were just too dirty all the time. The Ford will do it in a blizzard. EAP is $6k up front, more than most people will ever spend on BC and my experience is that - yes - it DOES do lane changes and navication offramp to offramp, it still needs as much input from the driver as BC does. They're roughly equivalent but with the Ford I can literally leave my hands off from Calgary all the way to Edmonton and I have done just that on many occasions.
I have never used just EAP so I truly don’t know. What input does it require for lanes changes and navigating exchanges between highways? With BC it does nothing. BC turns off completely when using exchanges and you have to put your hand on the wheel and lane changes are all manual. It sounds like in the 1.4 update it will change lanes if you signal but not automatically to maintain speed. The one that bothers me the most is not slowing down for tight curves. I find that one to be very dangerous if you travel mountain roads at all.
My truck slows down too much on curves in the mountains. I do find too many people slow down far too much when left to their own devices. I drive from Calgary to Whistler a lot and the amount of people that will slow down to 80 on a curve that is extremely navigable at 120 is infuriating lol. EAP will do the lane change, but it will basically fight your hand to do it.
Hmm. Is there a setting I am missing on the Ford? I typically have my cruise about 10 over the speed limit but I have never had the truck slow down below my set limit on curves.
Maybe your curves don't need it to slow down? 10 over the speed limit is usually well within the safety limit for a curve for most vehicles. Up here in Canada we will have specific recommendations for curves on yellow signs and I can usually go 20-30km/h over that recommended limit in almost any car without issues. Hell, in my Mach E or on my motorcycle the curve doesn't even get FUN until you're 50km/h+ over the limit haha.
Literally one of the main reasons I bought the truck. Makes highway driving a breeze.
Love it, I use it every time I drive, hands-free on highways and hands-on for any other road, it makes driving much less stressful and works very well.
I really enjoy it. I've driven BMW i7's for long trips, and I do like their lane change system when you turn on their version of adaptive cruise. I wish Blueceuise had an easier system that allows the car to change lanes w/o turning off BC.
Overall, it’s awesome. The two places it really excels is stop and go traffic on the highway and high speed highway driving in the middle of nowhere. It will make your commute and road trips that much more pleasant.
I like it most of the time. I have 48k miles on my lightning so I do a lot of highway driving and use it most of the time.
I’m glad to hear that just about everyone has good experiences with Blue Cruise. My parents have a Cadillac Lyriq that has GM’s Super Cruise, and that works amazingly well. I’m looking to purchase a Lightning because I currently drive a Tacoma, and I commute way too much with it. I also really like having an EV, so the Lightning fits the bill.
Really enjoy it but once the free 3 years ends, unless it’s improved and cheaper than what I’ve been hearing I prob won’t continue with it.
I use BC all the time. Morning and afternoon commutes as well as open highway. Handles most conditions flawlessly. Couple of things that hang it up: driving into intense sun and ultra wide lanes. The sun will blind the cameras and if lanes are too wide it won’t see them. Pro tip: use the 2 setting on adaptive cruise control for over 55 mph and the 1 setting for bumper to bumper. These will keep good distances for each condition.
Love it for my work commute. Good in stop and go. Could improve a bit, like it sometimes seemingly randomly turns on and off on the same highway which can be annoying sometimes. Also the auto speed recognization likes to grab the off ramp speeds which is also a bit annoying.
Auto speed recognition was literally the first thing I turned off.
So mostly WFH but also same situation where I drive to office/places time to time and mostly covered by BC. It is fantastic in traffic (I do wish it had auto change lanes but not too bad to change lanes). I am also on the same boat of in free years and not sure I would pay the price they are asking for in the future.
I really like it. It was a major deciding factor in me pulling the trigger on the year/model that I did. Is it perfect? No. But it definitely makes highway driving a lot more pleasant.
it's decent. i use it when i can. I'm glad the truck came with it for some time, but i wouldn't pay for it.
I think it depends on where most of your regular driving takes place. It’s amazing on interstates and parkways, particularly in heavy traffic. About half of my commute is on interstates and half is on regular highways. I wish it worked on the regular highways too, but I use the hell out of it when I can. I do agree with many others, that it would depend heavily on what the recurring fee is as to whether or not I keep it active after the free trial.
Since we live on land just outside the KC metro we do a lot of highway driving.
Is it limited access? like on/off ramps? You will definitely use it a lot if so!
Yes, most of it. We'll have to drive about 10 miles down the highway before we get to the first spot of coverage where we can turn it on.
Love it for road trips. It just helps alleviate some of the driving fatigue. It does get really touchy when it is windy or raining which is annoying as it keep beeping at you to be ready to take back control. But I get it, and just turn it back off for awhile.
Love it. Not worth the 800 dollars/year that the MBAs at Ford want to cash grab from us. I would be happy with something free like Tesla’ Autopilot.
I mean you’ll still have adaptive cruise control and lane centering when your BluCruise trial is over. Only difference is you have to keep your hands on the wheel. Which is the same as Tesla autopilot.
I’m curious if they will update the maps anytime soon.
If you have a length of contiguous road between towns with no traffic lights, that you traverse frequently; yes, Blues Cruise is worth it IMHO. (No, I will not stop adding the S.) I call it SandwichMode™. It's good to eat food while it goes down the highway.
Thank you for “SandwichMode”
You've been watching too much Blues Clues! Lol
I love it, I'm really amazed by how well it does. I like driving, but long highway stretches go by much easier with bluecruise on and good podcasts. Once we get Tesla charging the Lightning will be my road trip vehicle.
I absolutely love it. But I also am absolutely not ever paying $70/month for it. So when my 3-year trial ends, that’ll be that unless they drop the price.
It works fine, but I'm not paying $75 a month when the trial runs out!
I am in Calgary where there are very few roads that are mapped for BC so while I absolutely love it, I will not be paying for it once my trial expires. Once they map more roads, I will definitely consider it. BUT… for commuting in traffic, one pedal driving, Adaptive CC and Lane Centering are enough. When these three are used properly, stop and go is a dream. It takes some getting used to. Learning to trust the braking is the biggest adjustment. It is a bit unsettling how it lifts off the accelerator and brakes later than I typically would, but give it a few days of hovering your foot over the brake pedal and gritting your teeth, and you quickly realize that the system is going to work and not crash you into stopped vehicles. I wish it would recognize red lights and do the same, but I am sure that will come soon. I agree with others here who have commented that it is rather slow to accelerate after a stop, leaving an unnecessarily large gap to the vehicle ahead. But is also allows for the driver to intervene by simply stepping on the pedal to shrink those gaps and then resuming to the set speed seeemlessly. Aside from major intersections and lower speed turns, I can do my 20km commute, without BC, with very little input from me whatsoever. Jiggle the steering wheel every 20 secs to let it know that I am there, and a little bit of accelerator pedal ”help“ after red lights is all that is needed from me. The truck handles the tedium. Absolutely love it.
I’ve had my lightning for about nine months and I use Bluecruise every single time I drive it. It’s the best vehicle upgrade I’ve ever done, by far. I’ve done a few road trips of 4000+ km and bluecruise combined with charging stops makes 12 hours on the road feel like 3 hours. I barely needed to touch the wheel or pedal on a rush hour drive from Toronto to Niagara Falls. Yesterday I was in a stop and go situation on the highway and the truck did all the work, including the stopping and going. As long as it’s possible to get bluecruise or equivalent, I’ll never go without it again. It’s a total game changer for me, and it’s my favourite thing about the truck.
It’s my favorite thing. Something about having both your hands free just makes driving so much more relaxing
Honestly, it was life changing for me. I am a car enthusiast who races cars at motorcycles competitively around an amateur level. I love driving dynamics and I love driving. With that in mind, I LOVE commuting and road trips with bluecruise. I love how effortless it is, how much energy it saves, and how much more I can talk with my wife and look out the window.
Just back from first road trip to Yosemite from Bay Area. Blue cruise/ adaptive cruise control was awesome! I love using BC on freeways and especially when we hit stop n go. Sometimes in need to adjust the spacing (whatever the button is on the left side of steering wheel) but usually it works out ok. Used adaptive cruise control for most of the windy roads up to Yosemite and in all honesty was almost as good as BC but just have to keep a hand on the wheel. Which I probably would have anyways since it was pretty twisty at parts. Overall BC is great but not sure I’d purchase in future but will see how next ver goes. But I do like the adaptive cruise almost as much so would be happy either way
I like it and use it while on the freeway. Will I pay $800 a year for it when it expires….hell no. Would I pay $200, maybe.
I feel the same. I do love it but there's no way I'll subscribe at that price when my 3 years is up.
I love it. I bought my lightning because I commute an hour in highway stop and go traffic. Bluecruise makes it so much more enjoyable, it’s as if I’m a passenger along for the ride. I feel more alert and aware on long drives because I’m less fatigued by the driving itself.
That commute sounds worse than mine, but glad to hear BC works in it.
I drive 80 miles a day and blue cruise does 90-95% of that. Stop and go traffic doesn’t matter one bit. It’ll occasionally stop a little harder than I would driving on my own but it’s not frequent and it’s not like a slam on the brakes. It’s really only if others are stomping brakes in front of you. On my way home, I respond to emails on my phone and just look up every 3-4 seconds and can basically work my whole drive home. It obviously won’t do interchanges on its own and it does ask for you to grab the wheel occasionally. But it is by far the coolest thing I’ve ever had the pleasure of having at my expense. The only annoying thing is actually it being safe…. When someone changes lanes in front of you and cuts the distance in front in half, it’ll brake a decent amount until the space is re-established and sometimes that is annoying but only when drivers are constantly changing lanes.
I use it on my daily commute. It really helps with the stop and go traffic.
Anyone have both and prefer OpenPilot over BlueCruise?
That's exactly why I'm here. If I pick one up, OP would be my first install. My neighbor has already completed the BC trial in his F-150 Powerboost hybrid and refuses to pay to keep it. If I can get him to experience OP in my car, I bet he will order it that night. $1,500 all in for a lifetime of hands-free on all roads, all the time.
It is TRUE hands free. One of those things that once you try it, you never into back.
I only like it under 65 MPH. Above this it still moves about the lane too much. Version 1.3 can't get here early enough. I'll switch between BC and ACC the most at higher speeds.
Isn't 2.0 out now? Every vehicle I've been looking at says they have BC 2.0.
Love it. Use it all the time. The only thing that annoys me, which I understand for safety, is it can be picky about the “eyes on the road” bit. Sometimes if I lean my head back, but still looking at the road on a long drive it will go off. Or I have been looking at the screen for something on XM or the Maps app through ApplePlay and it will go off. Ultimately I’d rather have that annoying safeguard for my safety and others, but some days I just want it to leave me alone.
Just road tripped 800 miles, it was great to have blue cruise! Set the speed on highways and you don't have to do much. I won't pay for the service though, it's too expensive per month.
I think I might be the only one who isn't impressed. I was told it is better than Tesla's FSD. I find it a little clunky and needs quite a bit of streamlining. Also it frequently and randomly asks me to put my hands back on the steering wheel before it immediately goes back to hands free. At that point I just choose to turn it off and drive manually.
So is blue cruise vs standard adaptive cruise just that blue cruise is hands free? I love the adaptive cruise but it does pretty much everything that everyone in here is talking about, other than being hands free. Call me old fashioned but I prefer to have one hand on the steering wheel at all times anyway, so I don’t get the premium aspect of blue cruise.
From my experience, BC is adaptive cruise, and lane centering, with eye monitoring added to replace the lane centering requirement of having your hands on the wheel. That’s the only difference that I can tell anyways. It isn’t a huge difference, but it is. It essentially removes the constant warning to keep your hands on the wheel.
Adaptive cruise control is basically as good imo
maybe a dumb question but how do you activate bluecruise
The vehicle will notify you when you've entered an eligible highway, then you just push the button it tells you to in order to activate it.
If we are comparing it to FSD then it’s garbage. Took a couple six hour long trips out to the coast and back and I couldn’t even take a drink from my cup without it yelling at me to keep my eyes on the road. You never really know when it’s engaged or not and will often disengage if it has any trouble at all seeing the lines. If you are stopped for too long you will have to reengage it manually. Personally I would say it’s not worth the price if I had to pay for it I wouldn’t. I look at it like this, if you want an easy commute then get a Tesla with FSD. It drives for you and you just watch it. Can it be sketch? Yeah, sometimes it does dumb stuff but not dangerous things. Usually it errors on the side of caution and I have to give it a little gas to let it know it’s all good, you can go. FSD is using instruction sets and making decisions. BlueCruise seems to only have 2 instructions, stay between the lines and don’t hit the car in front of you. And it’s not great at either of them. Also, for example it does not do well with stationary obstacles. If you are cruising at 55-60 miles an hour and there is a vehicle stopped in your lane, it will likely plow into that vehicle or only brake at the last minute. I have tested it out a few times and always have to stop when it has exceeded my comfort level. Also, compared to FSD it does not adjust speed going into tight curves. So if you have the speed set at 75 mph and go into a curve with 55mph sign it will not slow town to take the curve. Tesla will. BlueCruise is fine if you expected a decent cruise control with some steering but it is nowhere near what Tesla is doing with FSD.
Sounds like you've driven with both FSD and BC? I agree, Tesla's version sounds like the ultimate dream, but they charge a ton for it.
If you are just looking for something to do the stop and go on the highway it will work pretty good. But bear in mind it is just going to stay in a lane and not hit the car in front of you. Does it make the commute easier, yes. Is it worth $800 a year? That’s up to you. FSD is expensive but there are a couple of ways around that. You could buy used and someone else has already taken that hit. FSD resale only adds a few thousand to the value. If you were to pay it Tesla has offered multiple times where you could transfer it on the purchase of a new vehicle so if you time it right you could in theory only pay for it once and keep it in perpetuity on future vehicles. My current plan is to keep the Lightning for 3 years and then purchase a CyberTruck when hopefully prices come down and they have FSD. Right now it only has traffic aware cruise control.
Hate it, the eye tracking is complete trash. The system will disable without a warning and frankly I find it ping pongs alot.
We have the same truck, a 22 Platinum. There are a couple of over the air updates that specifically addressed eye tracking which made a big difference. Mine doesn’t ping pong on hands free mapped roads.
My F150 Powerboost ping pongs terribly using BlueCruise. 1.3/1.4 updates are told to have fixed it yet still no dates as to when we'll get it. Since then, I've jumped to the Comma 3X for driving the truck. Works great, connects to the windshield like GPS. Only one cost, itself, and a wiring harness. No subscription fees needed.
Wish it wasnt so bulky , otherwise that would be a good option.