Ford announced BlueCruise – its hands-free highway driving system – back in April, and it will launch in the 2021 Ford F-150 and 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E later this year. At the time, the automaker also said that this feature would be available in future models as well, which will include the 2022 Lincoln Navigator, – as Ford Authority exclusively reported in May. However, Ford’s luxury arm will have its own unique name for its version of the hands-free driving feature – Lincoln ActiveGlide.
Lincoln ActiveGlide will build upon the automaker’s already comprehensive suite of driver-assist features by offering hands-free driving on certain sections of divided highways, which Lincoln calls “Hands-Free Blue Zones.” The system will use a combination of cameras, radar, and driver-monitoring technologies, just like BlueCruise.
Lincoln stopped short of providing additional details, but ActiveGlide is quite similar to BlueCruise in all of these aspects. The latter allows for hands-free driving on 100,000 miles of pre-mapped highways in the U.S. and Canada, using advanced camera and radar-sensing technologies, as well as a driver-facing camera in the instrument cluster to monitor eye gaze and head position to help ensure the driver’s eyes remain on the road.
BlueCruise is an SAE Level 2 driver-assist technology that offers a true hands-free driving experience while in Hands-Free Mode that does not require a driver’s hands to stay in contact with the steering wheel unless prompted by vehicle alerts. 2021 F-150 and Mach-E customers will be able to purchase BlueCruise software, plus a three-year service period, for $600 in the second half of 2021 when it’s ready to launch via an over-the-air software update. Hardware pricing varies by model and trim level.
As Ford Authority previously reported, the 2022 Navigator uses the same sensors to monitor head positioning as the Mach-E and F-150.
We’ll have more on ActiveGlide as soon as it’s available, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Lincoln news and ongoing Ford news coverage.
Comments
I wonder how or if Lincoln’s ActiveGlide can differ itself from Ford’s BlueCruise.
For now, I guess we just have to wait for the Navigator refresh.
Agreed. I don’t know if they did enough to differentiate Sync between the two companies. Hopefully there are a slew of premium features that come to Lincoln that don’t exist in regular Sync 4. Things like in-screen maps, more premium HUDs, and more specific control of the vehicle settings (suspension, exhaust, etc.) are all needed for Lincoln to compete at the highest levels. It’s unfortunate that “Autopilot” was taken because that would’ve been a perfect name for the aviation-themed Lincoln brand.
Good grief Farley, who are y’all actually paying for this dumb idea?