But did you get his?

 

It works beautifully in construction zones. Doesn't even miss a beat. At least the multiple construction zones I've driven through, including a very confusing exit closure that had people almost running into the cones

 

I just had my first experience with advanced driver assistance. I had an Explorer with BlueCruise and I drove it from Orlando to Miami, almost 4 hours. The BlueCruise worked great, and I never had to touch the steering wheel the whole trip...BUT I reiterate my criticism of this service from earlier...I found I did keep my hand on the wheel anyways and drove the car the way I do with Distronic on my Mercedes because...what else can I do? Every time I would look at something, even the infotainment it would yell at me to look forward. I was able to eat with both hands...which was good...but if I can't do something other than drive I may as well drive.

 

Not really. If its something you really want and enjoy, which he clearly does, $100 a month is not a huge sum...just get it.

Like I said before, nobody who is buying any new vehicle should be UNABLE to spend $100 a month on something. There's "I dont value that and I don't want to spend the money", but thats different than "I can't afford that".

 

There was an update to the driver attention monitoring software on BlueCruise that basically fixed that, it was a lot more tolerant and there was a lot less nagging post update. As for the hands free thing, I mostly just keep mine by my side, ready to take over or guide if needed. On freeways BlueCruise works so well you don't need to intervene much. It will intelligently position in lane based on traffic either side, can automatically change lane and it prepares for upcoming events like corners and exits. It's not FSD, but it handles freeway driving like a champ.

 

Yeah it did great, much smoother responding to people getting in front etc than Distronic also.

Thats the thing though, just sitting there with my hands at my sides doesn't do it for me...doesn't keep my mind busy. So I would up just holding the wheel like I do in my car and let it do the driving.

 

I'm old, this is what I like to do 😊 (this is a 2026 X I had for an overnight test drive)

 

Yeah, doesn't appeal to me.

If I can text or work or something while its driving, then great.

 

C'mon man, you ain't old. Old is a mindset

I'm way more relaxed using FSD. Unless I was looking at my phone for extended periods, FSD stayed out of my way. One of my co-workers has decided to buy a Tesla just experiencing FSD in my Model 3

 

I like to relax, admire the scenery and use the time as my "down time" to relax. I don't want to work while I'm the car. 😊

 

Exactly why I like it - my stress level drops dramatically while using FSD.

 

When I'm on a trip (especially a longer one), I want to relax as well and let the car do all the work. I usually have a podcast playing. My last trip, I even let it pick a charger and park itself 👍

 

If I could just look around even that would help, but with the BlueCruise it wouldn't even let me look out the side window. Nobody WANTS to work while they are in the car, but its time I could recapture so that I could do work I won't have to do when I am somewhere I can actually participate in a leisure activity.

To me its like driving vs being driven. The only reason I would rather have someone else drive is so I can relax or use my phone or do something else while I'm being driven. if I just have to sit there and keep my eyes on the road...may as well be driving myself.

 

Generally speaking, with the latest versions of BlueCruise you should not need to pay any more attention to your surroundings than you should already be paying anyway. You can look around for quite a while and do what you would normally do and it won't nag you to pay attention. I'm pretty sure your Explorer wasn't updated.

 

I'm sure it wasn't, it had 44k miles on it and was clearly purchased by Avis used. Unless I can say look down and write texts and all though it doesn't really move the needle for me over say what I have with Distronic.