Ford will begin offering its new BlueCruise hands-free highway driving system later in 2021. Via over-the-air software updates, the feature will be available for 2021 F-150 and 2021 Mustang Mach-E models equipped with the optional Ford Co-Pilot360 Active 2.0 Prep Package. Ford is anticipating the sale of more than 100,000 vehicles equipped with BlueCruise in the first year, based on sales and take-rate projections.

Testing & Validation

In 2020, Ford sent a fleet of 10 test vehicles ? five F-150 pickups and five all-electric Mustang Mach-E SUVs ? to complete what test drivers dubbed the ?Mother of All Road Trips.? The trek covered more than 110,000 miles through 37 states and five Canadian provinces to challenge BlueCruise against a wide range of road, weather, and traffic conditions.
?There are highway intricacies and driving conditions that you simply cannot replicate in a lab,? explained Hau Thai-Tang, Ford chief product platform and operations officer. ?Sending these vehicles out for real-world driving experiences is just one of many ways we ensured that BlueCruise technology offers confidence and convenience for drivers all across the continent.?

The test vehicles spent much of last November and December traveling across the United States and Canada, searching for every possible road condition and scenario. With each passing mile, test engineers logged data and monitored the system?s performance to highlight any areas of improvement. This late 2020 tri...