Rivian Driver+ vs. Ford BlueCruise -- my experience vs Out of Spec Kyle's

[MNLightning]

My experience continues to be 180 off of those expressed in his latest video where Drivers+ out scores BlueCruise.

• Driver+ deactivates and won’t re-engage in places that it has worked prior
• Driver+ has a long delay to re-engagement after a lane change
• Driver+ has no hands free
• Driver+ does better staying centered. My Lightning also favors riding the right part of the lane
• Both my Ford & R1T will do a lane dance periodically. I have more miles on the R1T. Right now I think the R1T has the edge, but iirc my R1T wasn’t awesome in this regard during the 1st month of owning it either
• For me BlueCruise is easier to use because it stays on, even after lane changes
• Disengagement isn’t as smooth in the R1T either
  
  
• I’m rooting for Rivian and hoping a update arrives soon to address these concerns. Could it be a difference of the test location where Kyle did his test…. or the scoring system, or Something else

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[MNLightning]

Don’t take this as bashing Rivian’s Driver+. It’s just than BlueCruise does more things better than my R1T in my local driving area’s. BlueCruise has shortcomings for sure but we will see what Rivian does to compete

 

[SeaGeo]

My experience is similar to Kyle's with driver+. On the mapped roads around me it does better than blue cruise did in the video on curves. I've had it successfully navigate sharper curves in traffic and higher speeds than on the section of road he tests on... at least from how it looks on video. It does have a tendency to badly over correct coming out of a sharp S curve though. I need to log that and submit it to Rivian nxt time I go through a specific curve that causes this.

I was totally unaware that blue cruise doesn't maintain hands free through decent corners. I would find that really annoying and it seems like it makes it a bit of a gimmic to me. I'd honestly prefer the capacitive wheel over having to continuously move my hands back to the steering wheel for each corner. That may also be because I'm not in the upper Midwest anymore, where I didn't need to touch the steering wheel to get from school to my in-laws in another State anyway.

• Driver+ deactivates and won’t re-engage in places that it has worked prior
• Driver+ has a long delay to re-engagement after a lane change
• Driver+ has no hands free

I don't have bullet one issue. They had an early issue with the GPS signal, you may want to ask service about that.

My re-engagement is pretty quick. It's not instant, but it's not enough to annoy me. I wish it would do this automatically.

We will see if it comes. Some of the warnings in the Rivian seem to suggest they're going that way (as does the website), but we will see.

Disengagement isn’t as smooth in the R1T either

Out of curiosity... how are you disengaging? Via the stalk, break, or trying to turn the steering wheel?

 

[SeaGeo]

Could it be a difference of the test location where Kyle did his test…. or the scoring system, or Something else

I mean, blue cruise started with more points than driver+ right? At least from what I recall that Driver+ started with. So the scoring initially aligned with some of your preferences. It just under performed on that specific section of highway on the actual driving component. As you can see it really depends on the section of road. On the first half BC did pretty good. On the last half it was... really not good. I'd love to get Ford's take on what's going on there.

 

[Hopper]

Remaining engaged during a lane change will be a major improvement for Driver+.

 

[MNLightning]

My experience is similar to Kyle's with driver+. On the mapped roads.

My re-engagement is pretty quick. It's not instant, but it's not enough to annoy me. I wish it would do this automatically.

Out of curiosity... how are you disengaging? Via the stalk, break, or trying to turn the steering wheel?

My opinion of Kyle’s Driver+ review was also similar to Kyle’s when I watched it.

My re-engagement? I wouldn’t call it even being close to instant. More in line with football field lengths at best. And then usually at least 1 or 2 failed engagements getting “Driver+ Not Available” messages

Disengagement usually via the stalk.

And you referred to the other system as a gimmick? In reference to corners?? Because BlueCruise does frequently ask me to put my hands on the wheel in sharper turns. But that is going from hands free vs already having my hands on the wheel in my R1T. So I’m not sure how that’s gimmicky if that’s what you meant.

I also think that Rivian’s hands on wheel Capacitance system is nicer than Fords torque system. Not sure I described those correctly but I prefer Rivian’s setup

 

[MNLightning]

Admin, I get why you moved the thread. But this does appear to be a forum where things go to die. But whatever....

 

[SeaGeo]

My re-engagement? I wouldn’t call it even being close to instant. More in line with football field lengths at best. And then usually at least 1 or 2 failed engagements getting “Driver+ Not Available” messages

Hmmm, now that I'm back in the Country I'll try mine again. I don't remember mine taking any longer to re-engage than on my other cars.

That being said, I really hope they improve the lane change behavior soon. Having to disengage and re-engage it is a bit annoying.

Disengagement usually via the stalk.

Interesting. What part of it do you find to be not smooth?

And you referred to the other system as a gimmick? In reference to corners?? Because BlueCruise does frequently ask me to put my hands on the wheel in sharper turns. But that is going from hands free vs already having my hands on the wheel in my R1T. So I’m not sure how that’s gimmicky if that’s what you meant.

Yeah. Some of this is disappointment in Blue Cruise on my part, and some of it is the frequency of curves on my commute.

Claiming "hands free" but only on straight roads seems... rudimentary? I can't remember having to "correct" my ID.4 or XC60 on a straight section of road, so I don't really see the tech improvement there. I was assuming they had hands free working through corners. Without that, it just seems more of an annoyance than anything to have to move my hands on and off the steering wheel for every corner.

In the midwest, that wouldn't be an issue (hence my joke about driving doing that in college with a regular car), so I can see the improvement there. With the R1T and the capacitive steering wheel, I'm sitting in a comfortable position just cupping the steering wheel that I personally find quite natural anyway.


Re: steering wheel feedback. You did describe them correctly. Since the R1T seems to rely entirely on touch, I'm a little curious how it's going to work in the winter with gloves. Hopefully it allows torque feedback or they get their eye tracking enabled soon.

 

[ERguy]

Driver+ does better staying centered. My Lightning also favors riding the right part of the lane

Did you know the Ford allows you to adjust where the truck stays within the lane?

Try this.

 

[SANZC02]

Re: steering wheel feedback. You did describe them correctly. Since the R1T seems to rely entirely on touch, I'm a little curious how it's going to work in the winter with gloves. Hopefully it allows torque feedback or they get their eye tracking enabled soon.

Are you sure it is not just monitoring resistance? For instance with Tesla if you had a roll of quarters hanging on one side of the wheel it unbalances it and thinks your hands are on it. Or so I’m told…

 

[SeaGeo]

Are you sure it is not just monitoring resistance? For instance with Tesla if you had a roll of quarters hanging on one side of the wheel it unbalances it and thinks your hands are on it. Or so I’m told…

It's definitely capacitive.

 

[MNLightning]

Did you know the Ford allows you to adjust where the truck stays within the lane?

Try this.

Thanks I didn't, but my cheat/hack for not getting warnings is to maintain slight pressure to the left because it slightly hugs the right side of the lane. I have NOT noticed any improvement yet, but I have under 300 miles using BlueCruise atm. If I'm reading that correctly I should notice the centering effect/preferred position while driving and I haven't.

 

[ERguy]

Thanks I didn't, but my cheat/hack for not getting warnings is to maintain slight pressure to the left because it slightly hugs the right side of the lane. I have NOT noticed any improvement yet, but I have under 300 miles using BlueCruise atm. If I'm reading that correctly I should notice the centering effect/preferred position while driving and I haven't.

I've only tried it on the Mach E, but it should be similar.

You have to kind of man-handle the wheel for a few seconds. Not gentle corrections. If you hold firm pressure to hold the vehicle in a position while the truck tries to fight you, after a few seconds you should feel the truck suddenly stop fighting you. Then you can let go and continue in the new position of the lane.

If you do it right... It will feel like a tug of war match for few seconds followed by your opponent letting go of their end of the rope.

It's far from perfect even when it works. On my Mach E it will hold the new position well until it goes around a few curves. Then I have to reteach it where to stay again. On a straight interstate it can hold the new position for several miles without difficulty.

 

[MNLightning]

I've only tried it on the Mach E, but it should be similar.

You have to kind of man-handle the wheel for a few seconds. Not gentle corrections. If you hold firm pressure to hold the vehicle in a position while the truck tries to fight you, after a few seconds you should feel the truck suddenly stop fighting you. Then you can let go and continue in the new position of the lane.

If you do it right... It will feel like a tug of war match for few seconds followed by your opponent letting go of their end of the rope.

It's far from perfect even when it works. On my Mach E it will hold the new position well until it goes around a few curves. Then I have to reteach it where to stay again. On a straight interstate it can hold the new position for several miles without difficulty.

Thanks I’ll give that a go tomorrow.

 

[Arky]

I think the big thing they have to work on (Rivan) is the disengagement. From seeing stuff like Supercruise the handoffs are clear and warnings show up when you have to do something, Rivian's system seems apt to make a sharp move to "avoid" an accident that several people have complained about here (making sharp moves towards walls), when it probably out to disengage several seconds before that and warn the driver.

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