
REVIEWS FORD BLUECRUISE HANDSFREE DRIVERS
The ways in which different technologies communicate with drivers were also tested. Tesla does not generally respond to media queries. Attempts to email Tesla with questions about Consumer Reports’ assessments were unsuccessful. Tesla’s “Full Self Driving” optional feature, which promises to one day provide assistance in a broad range of situations including urban driving, was not evaluated in these tests. More advanced features, such as automated lane changes, which are available in some systems, were not evaluated.
REVIEWS FORD BLUECRUISE HANDSFREE DRIVER
“In our tests, both Mercedes-Benz and Tesla allowed the vehicle to drive down the highway hands-free for about 30 seconds before the first audible alert was given to the driver to put a hand back on the steering wheel,” Kelly Funkhouser, head of connected and automated vehicle for Consumer Reports, was quoted as saying in an report on the results.Ĭonsumer Reports auto testers put the various systems through 40 different tests to gauge things like how well the systems steered the vehicles, how they ensured the driver remained alert and how they dealt with inattentive or even an unconscious driver. Some systems that used only the weight of a hand on the steering wheel to indicate driver attentiveness still allowed drivers to not touch the steering wheel for a worryingly long time, according to Consumer Reports. (No self-driving cars are yet on the market.) Drivers are supposed to pay attention at all times and be ready to take over the wheel in the event something happens that the car’s automated systems can’t safely handle.

Vehicles with ADAS are not self-driving cars. Tesla Autopilot and most others, by contrast, can detect only the pull of a driver’s hand on the steering wheel to ensure that the driver isn’t entirely distracted. GM’s Super Cruise, which ranked second, is the only other system tested by Consumer Reports that works this way.įord’s driver monitoring technology is one of the major reasons that BlueCruise ranked so highly in Consumer Reports’ testing. Second, BlueCruise uses an infrared camera inside the car to monitor the driver’s face and make sure they are paying attention to the road ahead. First, the Ford system is designed to allow drivers to leave their hands off the steering wheel for long periods of time while driving on highways that have been pre-mapped in detail. The system offered by Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, three closely related South Korean car brands, received the lowest score in Consumer Reports’ testing.īlueCruise has two major differences from Tesla Autopilot, and most of the others. These include systems offered by luxury brands like GM’s Cadillac, Toyota’s Lexus and VW’s Audi. In addition to Ford’s system, ADAS technology from General Motors, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, and Volkswagen all ranked higher than Tesla’s. The best such system, according to Consumer Reports, is Ford’s BlueCruise. And in a recent ranking by Consumer Reports, which tested ADAS from 12 different carmakers, Tesla’s ranked seventh. Tesla’s Autopilot, which at its core combines lane keeping assist with traffic aware cruise control to help guide a car down a highway, was once groundbreaking technology.īut today more than half of new vehicles are available with similar advanced driver assistance systems, or ADAS.
