Self-Driving – Pulpaddict

Game-changing ‘hands-free, eyes-on’ technology for motorway drivers

We road test Ford’s pioneering BlueCruise self-driving system…

I’m no stranger to the latest advances in car tech, so I was a bit sceptical when I was offered the opportunity to try BlueCruise in a Ford Mustang Mach-E.

After all, over the years I’ve experienced hands-free systems in vehicles from the likes of Tesla, Volvo, Nissan and Audi, so what’s new?

The difference with BlueCruise is that it’s the first ‘hands-off, eyes-on’ advanced driver assistance technology approved by the Department for Transport for some 2,300 miles of pre-mapped motorways in the UK.

BlueCruise builds on the capabilities of Adaptive Cruise Control, which can automatically keep pace with traffic within legal speed limits, right down to a complete halt.

Unlike other tech used by rivals, BlueCruise allows drivers on approved Blue Zone sections of motorway to drive with their hands off the steering wheel as long as they continue to pay attention to the road ahead.

And as I found out, it’s not just the fact that you drive for uninterrupted periods with your hands free – it’s the slick all-round experience.

I tried it on sections of the M3 and M25. The technology kicked in seamlessly as I joined the M3 from the A303 where I’d been in adaptive cruise control.

Cleverly, the system recognises you’re on a BlueCruise motorway (there’s a map of the full network on the Ford website), the driver’s displays turns blue, it says ‘hands free’ and you’re off.

Or at least your hands are off – and your feet (if you like), but not your eyes.

If the system detects driver inattention, warning messages are first displayed on the driver’s screen, followed by audible alerts, brake activations, and finally slowing of the vehicle while maintaining steering control.

So, once in a Blue Zone, it’s much like any intelligent adaptive cruise control (ACC) system, using a combination of radars and cameras to detect and track the position and speed of other vehicles on the road.

Additionally, a forward-facing camera detects lane markings and speed signs and, crucially, the system also uses an infrared driver-facing camera located below the instrument cluster to check your eye gaze and head pose – even when you are wearing sunglasses – to ensure your attention remains focused on the road.

Just like the first time you use adaptive cruise control, it really is a matter of trusting the technology.

Thankfully, I didn’t experience any frightening moments, so I didn’t lose my nerve and there was no need to grab the wheel.

I couldn’t think of much else to do with my hands other than to lay them on my lap, but I guess you could drink a bottle of water or eat a sandwich, as long as you keep your eyes on the road.

However – as with driving any type of vehicle – while there’s no specific law about snacking behind the wheel, the police could prosecute you for careless driving if they consider you to not be in proper control of your vehicle, an offence which carries an on-the-spot fine of £100 and three penalty points.

Sadly, you still have to take control of the car again in order to change lane. Apparently, we have a less advanced version of BlueCruise than the US where the regulations are looser. There, lane-changing is automatic. If the lane is open, you simply activate the indicator, then BlueCruise will switch lane.

That said, unlike other self-driving systems, you can in theory drive for hundreds of miles with your hands off the steering wheel in a Mustang Mach-E fitted with BlueCruise. In fact, Ford claims hands-free Blue Zones make up around 95% of the UK’s motorways.

Perhaps the most important takeaway is that I felt more rested when I reached the end of my two journeys. What’s more, on a really long trip I think I’d feel more alert if technology was taking some of the strain.

So, Ford’s BlueCruise technology is genuinely impressive. Whether it’s worth the subscription is another matter.

The first 90 days are included with the vehicle purchase and, thereafter, you have to pay £17.99 per month.

At the moment, BlueCruise can be enabled on Mustang Mach-E models from model year 2023, though Ford is working on the OTA (over-the-air) software to enable all Mach-E owners with the tech pack installed to have BlueCruise as an update.

Ford brings ‘hands-free’ driving to UK motorways

Gareth Herincx

2 days ago
Auto News

Ford has become the first car manufacturer to gain approval for the use of “hands-off, eyes-on” advanced driver assistance technology in the UK.

Mustang Mach-E drivers equipped with Ford’s new Level 2 BlueCruise system are now legally able to drive with their hands off the wheel.

In a first of its kind for a system of this type in Europe, the tech can be used on 2,300 miles of pre-mapped motorways in England, Scotland and Wales.

These pre-designated ‘Blue Zones’ will allow the driver to travel in hands-free mode, providing they pay attention to the road ahead, and it can be operated at speeds of up to 80mph.

The system monitors road markings, speed signs and traffic conditions and then uses this to control the vehicle’s steering, acceleration and lane positioning.

It also allows the car to maintain a safe distance to the vehicles ahead, but it can also automatically slow the vehicle down should traffic build up ahead.

In-car cameras also monitor the driver’s attentiveness to ensure that they’re maintaining concentration on the road ahead. These infra-red driver-facing cameras check the driver’s eye gaze and head pose, even if they’re wearing sunglasses.

If it detects that the driver isn’t being attentive, it will display a warning message in the instrument cluster. This will be followed by audible alerts and will finally apply the brake and slow the vehicle if the driver fails to look at the road. This will also occur if the driver fails to place their hands back on the wheel when they return to an area outside of a Blue Zone.

“It’s not every day that you can say you’ve placed one foot in the future, but Ford BlueCruise becoming the first hands-free driving system of its kind to receive approval for use in a European country is a significant step forward for our industry,” said Martin Sander, general manager of Ford’s electric division in Europe.

Drivers of the 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-e will be the first that can access BlueCruise via a subscription.

The first 90 days are included with the car’s price, but after that it’ll require a £17.99 monthly subscription.

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Audi Teases New activesphere Concept

Audi activesphere concept

Unlike the other members of the Sphere series of concepts, the activesphere looks designed for rugged terrain.

Last week in Pebble Beach, Audi showcased three of its series of Sphere concept vehicles. It was the first time the grandsphere, skysphere, and urbansphere were all shown in public at the same time — and the photos are stunning. In what’s been an ambitious run, each of these next-generation machines has been released in the last 12 months. But Ingolstadt just demonstrated it’s still pushing forward (even if its new flagship is still years behind schedule).

Because just as the festivities in Monterey were wrapping up, Audi released a teaser images for the activesphere concept. This latest in the Sphere series appears to be a sleek four-door coupe design, though unlike the other three entries in the line, the elevated ride height and the beefy rubber set it apart. Indeed, according to the official press release, this concept will “will offer maximum variability for an active lifestyle – both on and off-road.”

Audi Sphere automated driving. That means the interior will be a space that can be transformed from a cockpit into something more akin to a mobile living room than a traditional cabin.

For driving enthusiasts, that might very well sound like the beginning of the end. But while I love to drive, I can’t say I hate the idea of a machine that would, say, navigate through stop-and-go congestion while I read a novel, or even take a nap. That seems like the best of both worlds, and while I think that tech is still a ways off, I’m confident I’ll see it in my lifetime. Also? I have to admit I’m intrigued by a vehicle that could use its cutting-edge tech to navigate tricky trails on the way to a remote campsite or scenic view. So color me curious…

Photos: Audi

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Audi Legal Boss Talks the Future of Self-Driving

Audi grandsphere concept

When it comes to self-driving vehicles, Audi’s chief counsel says the laws will be almost as complicated as the tech.

Imagine walking into your favorite restaurant, bar, or café, and asking everyone who loved driving to raise their hand. What percentage of folks do you think would do it? If I was being overly optimistic? I’d guess around 25 percent — but the reality is it’d probably be far less. So as heretical as it might sound to enthusiasts, self-driving cars are absolutely going to happen. Because when people are offered the option of safely surrendering the task of driving to their car? They’ll jump at it. Mark my words.

That said, how exactly the transition to self-driving cars will work remains murky. Which makes recent comments from Uta Klawitter, Head of General Counsel Legal Services at Audi, extremely interesting. In an interview posted on the company’s media site, she looks at some of the biggest challenges facing self-driving cars, and while her perspective is focused more on Germany and Europe at large, they offer a roadmap that could easily adapted for our shores. As you might expect, reams of new regulations will need to be written.

At this point, the laws surrounding Level 4 vehicles — which can drive themselves but still allow for human intervention — are still unclear. Here’s what Klawitter had to say about developments on the legal landscape:

In Europe, we can safely say that we will see functions like highway pilots for long distances by 2030. However, I don’t really think that we will be able to sleep while driving into the weekends. For ownership vehicles, meaning cars that are used privately, the technical regulations for approving L4 functionality do not exist yet in Europe. We expect those in 2024 at the earliest. Apart from that, regulations for using highly automated driving functions within the bounds of each country’s national road traffic laws still need to be introduced.

Along with the legal framework, however, is the next-generation technology that will need to be developed to allow Level 5 vehicles to operate freely. There’s also the question of how ready the population at large will be for it:

The biggest challenge will definitely be the technology itself. It has to enable a highly automated driving function that is convincingly smooth and, above all, safe. Only then – and this is the second challenge – will it gain social acceptance and the corresponding trust. For me, the third challenge is also clear: we need to harmonize the regulations at the international, or at least the European level. Otherwise, the area where vehicles can be used across national borders will be limited and the technical differences will be extremely complex due to the different national vehicular traffic law requirements.

All that makes sense to me. But as someone who lives in the United States, and is sincerely interested in the prospect of self-driving vehicles on my local streets, I found her comments on the market here to be particularly interesting.

But the high demand for safety, which is simply expected at this point and correspondingly legally protected, is also important. We sometimes see a different approach in the two other trailblazing markets, the US and China. In the US, people are more curious about technical innovations and therefore tolerate more risks. By contrast, German legislators are rightly open to this evolutionary technology in smaller steps in order to minimize the possible risks.

Now, as someone who tends to think the United States is overly litigious and risk-averse, that came as a surprise to me. Because in the States? It took the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration almost a decade to approve modern headlight technology for use on our roads. That foot-dragging, of course, is in stark contrast to the fact that Tesla has been allowing customers to beta test its “full self-driving” software without so much as a peep from authorities — even when it’s literally programmed to break the law.

So I guess when it comes to autonomous vehicles? We’re still very much the wild west. For more insight onto this next step in the evolution of the automobile, make sure to check out the full interview.

Photos: Audi

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