Ford BlueCruise

2021: Start selling the first cars with an autopilot Ford BlueCruise

In mid-April 2021 Ford , she announced the start of sales of cars with support for autopilot the BlueCruise system, which does not require constantly holding hands on the steering wheel. We are talking about the 2021 Ford F-150, as well as electric crossover the Mustang Mach-E. Before entering the market, the BlueCruise system passed more than 800 thousand km of tests that were carried out on the roads of 37 American states and five provinces. Canada

Autopilot BlueCruise refers to systems of the second level of autonomy. The system works together with the Ford Co-Pilot360 complex, that is, it is necessary to have adaptive cruise control, car retention in the center of the lane and support for recognition of road signs. When using BlueCruise, the driver can remove his hands from the steering wheel, but only on certain sections of motorways called Hands-Free Blue Zones. By April 2021, the length of such zones in North America is more than 160 thousand km - in the coming years, this indicator is expected to increase at least twice.

Ford begins selling its first autopilot cars - Ford F-150 and Mustang Mach-E

When entering the "blue zone," the driver will be notified by a blue indication on the dashboard. Having received a notification, you can release the steering wheel, but the driver must be ready at any time to take control of the car completely. Whether the driver is watching the situation on the road is monitored by a special infrared camera on the instrument panel, in particular, it monitors the driver's look and position of his head. In the future, the manufacturer plans to expand the capabilities of autopilot: the system will automatically change the lane at the request of the driver and reduce speed when passing junctions.

Users of the Ford Co-Pilot360 Active 2.0 Prep package will be able to simply update the software, which will cost $600 with a subscription for three years. The full cost will be $600-1595 for software and $995 for hardware. For Mustang Mach-E cars in CA Route 1, Premium and First Edition versions, autopilot will be provided "in the base," otherwise the cost will be $600-3600. ^[1]

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