Some British Ford drivers will become the first in Europe to have their cars driving themselves as long as they watch the road ahead.
The U.S. automaker on Thursday said the UK’s Department for Transport has approved the use of its “hands-off, eyes-on” driving technology, named BlueCruise, on 2,300 miles (3,700 kms) of pre-mapped motorways in England, Scotland, and Wales that are designated as “Blue Zones.”
Transport minister Jesse Norman heralded the system’s use in Britain as “great news” and claimed it proves the UK is “once more at the forefront of innovation.”
But the new development is also raising concerns that drivers may get a “false sense of security.”
BlueCruise has been available in the United States and Canada since 2021, and the UK is now the first country in Europe to have approved it.
It’s currently only available on the 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E, a pure electric sports utility vehicle (SUV), and Ford said it expects to roll out the system to more models in the coming years and in more European countries where approvals are granted.
For a £17.99 ($22.50) monthly subscription fee, drivers can activate BlueCruise technology, which can drive compatible cars with a maximum speed of 80 mph (130 km/h) and stop them in a traffic jam. It uses radars and cameras to detect lane markings, speed signs, and track the position and speed of other vehicles on the road, the company said.
However, it’s only a partially automated system as it requires the drivers’ attention.
According to Ford, the system uses an infrared driver-facing camera to check the driver’s eye gaze and head pose to determine whether the driver is paying attention to the road.
It would make sure lane markings are visible and the driver’s eyes are on the road before switching to hands-free driving.
When in hands-free driving mode, if the system decides the driver is not paying attention or if the driver does not put their hands back on the wheel when prompted as the car leaves a Blue Zone, warning messages will appear, followed by alarms, and the system would hit the brake to slow the car down.
According to Ford, U.S. and Canadian drivers have driven 64 million “hands-free miles” (102 million kms) and Ford engineers have tested driver assistance systems including BlueCruise on 100,000 miles (160,000 kms) of roads in Europe.
Martin Sander, general manager of Ford Model e Europe, said the UK’s approval of Blue Cruise is “a significant step forward” for the automotive industry.
“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,” he said, adding that the technology can ”make highway driving less of a chore, and give drivers that little extra confidence and convenience.”
Transport minister Jesse Norman also said the system would “make driving smoother and easier” and “help make roads safer by reducing scope for driver error.”
But Steve Gooding, director of motoring research charity the RAC Foundation, said automation can’t eliminate human error.
Around half of the participants had to look at the floor to check their feet were on the correct peddles, while there was also “significant” lane swerving, according to the report.
Commenting on the launch of Ford’s system on Thursday, Gooding said: “Fully driverless cars offer the prospect of a big safety gain by removing the human errors behind so many crashes, but human error will still be with us while we have a mixed fleet of vehicles being driven as well as driving themselves.
“The technology being launched now is not fully autonomous, it is dependent on the driver being ready to intervene, and our research found that it is this ‘hand back’ to the driver that poses the biggest challenge,” he said.
Gooding also stressed the importance of drivers understanding the limitations of their vehicles, particularly once they enter the second-hand market with no direct contact between manufacturers and owners.
“Ironically, as we enter this new world of cars controlling themselves, drivers might actually need more training rather than less, so they fully understand a vehicle’s capabilities,“ he said, adding that manufacturers ”are likely to have a big role.”
AA president Edmund King said assisted driving features such as lane keeping systems “will bring in safety benefits,” but stressed that “even with their hands off the wheel, the driver must remain alert to what is going on around them.”
“Technology can make our cars and roads safer but it mustn’t give drivers a false sense of security,” he said.
