Ford’s EV and BlueCruise combine for better road trips

Until the promised future of self-driving cars arrives, we’re stuck behind the wheels of our cars. Self-driving is slowly getting bigger… Self-driving in places, but for passenger cars that still have steering wheels, we still need to keep our hands on the steering wheel and our eyes on the road — if you don’t drive a GM with SuperCruise or a Ford with BlueCruise , This is it.

Currently only available on certain models of Ford’s first two battery-powered vehicles, namely Mustang Mac E And the F-150 LightningBlueCruise enables hands-free driving on more than 130,000 miles of divided highways around the United States. It’s basically Ford’s Co-Pilot 360 driver assistance system paired with an array of in-vehicle cameras that monitor the driver’s eyes to make sure they’re looking at the road.

I recently had a week’s worth of both a Ford Mustang Mach-E GT and an F-150 Lightning Platinum, both equipped with BlueCruise. These two weeks have also coincided with a positive COVID test for my son, who is a freshman at the University of Iowa. Because that university’s COVID policy for positive tests is “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here,” and I had a (light) seizure about a month ago, I was sent to retrieve the boy so he could isolate at home.

The largest segment of the approximately 215-mile route between suburban Chicago and Iowa City is Interstate 88, which is arguably one of the less interesting stretches of the interstate highway system. Along with I-294 and I-80, it is designated by Ford and covered by BlueCruise. Suddenly the prospect of over 850 miles of boring back-and-forth driving seemed less daunting.

The Disguised Driver’s Frustrations

Twenty-four hours after symptoms first appeared, our son sent us a picture of a positive COVID test. At that point, the $69,600 Mustang Mach-E GT Performance Edition was sitting in the garage with a range of about 190 miles. After I drove to Iowa City in our BEV, I knew there was a level 3 charger 40 or so miles from our destination in Iowa 80, also known as the “world’s largest truck stop” outside Walcott, Iowa. Having owned a BEV for nearly three years, I also knew better of chance of a trip without a very small buffer, so I went out into the garage and plugged our Electrify America charger into the Mach-E.

As the name suggests, the GT is an upgraded version of the Mustang Mach-E. With sporty all-wheel drive, the GT can shoot from 0 to 60 in just 3.8 seconds. If that’s not enough, the $5,000 Performance Edition cuts that number down to just 3.5 seconds. Its two electric motors produce 480 horsepower (358 kW) and 634 pound-feet (860 Nm) of torque. The GT comes with Ford’s 88kWh long-range battery, giving the Performance GT a range of 260 miles, 10 miles down from the Vanilla GT.

When I checked the Electrify America app about three hours later, the Mach-E was north of a 240-mile range, so it was time to go. Once I got to Tri-State Tollway, I made the Neal Stephenson audiobook yawning And run BlueCruise. After a few seconds, a blue steering wheel icon appeared on the digital instrument panel with the words “Hands-Free” on it. I dropped my hands to my side, and the car kept doing what cars do.