More drivers are about to get hands-free BlueCruise tech

Earlier this year our Ford BlueCruise “hands-off, eyes-on” ¹ advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) ² received regulatory approval for use on the motorway network in Great Britain. ³  
  
That made BlueCruise the first system of its kind to get the go-ahead in Europe.  
  
It was big news and a watershed moment for drivers – especially for owners of our electric Mustang Mach-E ⁴ in England, Scotland and Wales. They were the first in Europe to be able to enjoy more relaxing journeys using hands-free driving on 3,700 km of pre-defined highway called Blue Zones.  

  
At that time, we explained that we expected BlueCruise to be activated in further European countries as and when regulatory conditions permitted.   
  
Now, we’re excited to make Level 2 ⁵ hands-free ADAS available to drivers in a second European market, after Germany’s Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA) granted regulatory approval for BlueCruise in Germany.  
  
The system will be available to order on Mustang Mach-E models in Germany within the next few weeks.     

“With BlueCruise, Ford is positioning itself as a leading provider of future-proof driver assistance technologies. Data collected from more than one million test kilometres from around the world formed the basis for successful approval in Germany.”  

  

Torsten Wey,

Head of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems at Ford Europe

  
Drivers of BlueCruise-capable Mustang Mach-E models with an active subscription ⁶ to the technology will then be able to take their hands off the wheel while keeping their eyes on the road on a combined 32,794 km of Blue Zones on highways in Great Britain and Germany.
  
That’s equivalent to the distance from London, England, to Adelaide, Australia… and back again.  

BlueCruise is designed to take ADAS comfort and convenience benefits to the next level. Using the sat-nav system, it can tell when a driver is on a stretch of pre-defined Blue Zone highway. Radars, cameras and a powerful computing system can monitor road markings, speed signs and evolving traffic conditions, and then control steering, acceleration and braking while smoothly maintaining consistent distances to vehicles ahead.  
 
It works at highway cruising speeds and right down to a complete halt in traffic jams. And, crucially, the system also uses infrared camera technology to continually check the driver’s attentiveness. The sophisticated camera can even see through sunglasses to check that driver attention is focused on the road ahead.  

 
Great Britain and now Germany are the first markets to approve the use of BlueCruise outside of the US and Canada. Globally there are more than 225,000 Ford and Lincoln vehicles equipped with BlueCruise. And in North America customers have spent 1.4 million hours enjoying BlueCruise to date and have driven more than 100 million miles (160 million kilometres) and counting.   
  
 
¹ Ford BlueCruise is a hands-free highway driving feature. Only remove hands from the steering wheel when in a Hands-Free Blue Zone. Always watch the road and be prepared to resume control of the vehicle. It does not replace safe driving. See Owner's Manual for details and limitations. [The BlueCruise Prep Kit contains the hardware required for this feature.]  Requires purchased BlueCruise subscription to cover data usage, regular map updates and feature improvements. To use BlueCruise you will need to activate your Mustang Mach-E using the FordPass App.  
  
² Driver-assist features are supplemental and do not replace the driver’s attention, judgment and need to control the vehicle.   
  
³ Not available in Northern Ireland.  
  
⁴ In accordance with the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP). A range of up to 600 km (intended target value according to WLTP) can be achieved with a fully charged battery - depending on the existing series and battery configuration. The actual range may vary due to various factors (e.g. weather conditions, driving style, route profile, vehicle condition, age and condition of the lithium-ion battery).  
  
⁵ SAE International defines Level or Category 2 – Partial Driving Automation – as the sustained and operation design domain-specific execution by a driving automation system of both the lateral and longitudinal vehicle motion control subtasks of the dynamic driving task with the expectation that the driver completes the object and event detection and response subtask and supervises the driving automation system.  
  
⁶ BlueCruise capability comes as standard on model year 2023 Mustang Mach-E vehicles in Great Britain and model year 2023.75 in Germany. Subscribers receive the first 90 days free to trial the feature and can cancel at any time. FordPass Connect must be activated prior to BlueCruise being enabled. 

Follow @FordNewsEurope