Hands-free driving sounds either absolutely fantastic or absolutely terrifying, depending on who you ask. I happen to be somewhere in between, having tried it on short stretches of highway before, but never on a long-distance drive, which is what the technology is intended for. But then I was able to borrow a Lincoln Nautilus for a few days, fitting in with a short road trip where I would experience about 150 miles of hands-free Blue Zones.
Blue Zones are areas of controlled-access highways where Ford’s BlueCruise driver-assistance feature is available. As a subsidiary of Ford, Lincoln has begun rolling out BlueCruise on select models in its own fleet. This includes the 2024 Nautilus, a spacious SUV that starts at about $50,000 but can be equipped with the highest levels of luxury. Think: autonomous parking, panoramic roofs, door-to-door digital displays, integrated fragrance diffusers and more.
Despite all the bells and whistles, the Lincoln Nautilus boils down to two key experiences: BlueCruise and the Lincoln Digital Experience. I could explain both of them to you in detail, or you can watch my YouTube video where I discuss the highlights of a drive in this snazzy SUV on I-495 on Long Island.
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Why use BlueCruise?
There are actually two benefits to using BlueCruise or owning a car like the Lincoln Nautilus with BlueCruise. The first benefit is directional stability – it helps keep the car in its lane and corrects every little natural movement of my hands.
But perhaps more importantly, it pays attention to the cars on the other side and adjusts my lane accordingly. So if someone on my right is moving slightly to the left closer to me, the car will move a little closer to the left edge of my lane as long as there is no one on my left. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of being one of those drivers on Long Island, you know that this feature is definitely useful.
The second benefit is a little more obvious: hands-free driving. To use hands-free driving, you must be in a blue zone. BlueCruise operates on 97% of controlled-access highways in areas in the U.S. and Canada that are designated hands-free blue zones. When I entered a blue zone, the dashboard prompted me to engage adaptive cruise control. After the system calibrated my position, it told me I could take my hands off the wheel.
While I may not have been convinced about the overall safety of hands-free driving before, BlueCruise made me feel safe with its attention detection system.
When using BlueCruise, the car can automatically change lanes and wait until your surroundings are clear after you use the indicator. It also automatically changes speed and slows down compared to the car in front of you. When I got into short traffic jams on my trips, the car adjusted accordingly and accelerated back to my set speed once I passed the traffic jam.
While I may not have been convinced of the overall safety of hands-free driving before, BlueCruise made me feel safe with its attention detection system. If I looked away from the road ahead for more than a few seconds, it would beep loudly and threaten to disable the hands-free function. In other words, it’s a feature that needs to be used responsibly and without distraction, and BlueCruise has certain measures in place to ensure it’s not exploited. Hands-free driving isn’t flawless, but as long as you view BlueCruise as a little help rather than an excuse not to drive your own car, it can be a useful tool.
In addition to select Lincoln models, BlueCruise is also available in Ford electric vehicles, such as the Mustang Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. To see the technology in action, check out the YouTube video above.
