SeaGeo
Well-Known Member
You probably won't believe me, but I had been looking for that statement several times recently because that was what I had recalled at one point as well, and I kept looking in all of these tabs:Sure they do. Here is a screenshot.
Rivian's functionality currently with how it performs is the same as Bluecruise except that Rivian *currently* requires you to literally just touch the wheel while your hand is on the steering wheel in most situations. Feedback shuts it off when you overrule it. The way the vehicle handles on the road and how it behaves when you provide input to the steering wheel is significantly different than how VW or Volvo or Ford handle lane centering when you aren't on a pre-mapped road with for example Bluecruise. I'd generally consider Bluecruise more advanced than basic lane centering that VW and Volvo are doing, and what Ford does when not on mapped roadways.It's proof because Ford, Kia, Hyundai, and many more do NOT have that restriction as you just stayed. They allow lane centering on all roads with lane markings... Not just mapped roads.
You are trying to compare Driver+ mapping to Bluecruise mapping, but that's apples to oranges. Ford's Bluecruise mapping only applies to hands free driving. All of the other aspects of Ford's driver assistance system is available everywhere... Including the lane centering. What part of that do you not believe?
Rivian is truly one of the only companies limiting these features to mapped highways.
If you take Driver+ highway assist and rotate your hand position so that it's cupping your knee instead of the steering wheel, you have Bluecruise. Otherwise the two systems seem to have the same philosophical approach, and from what I've seen Bluecruise is inferior at handling curves. You said you want Driver+ to be hands free. So if they pushed and update tomorrow to say it's "hands free" they'd have skipped what's basically advanced lane keep assist for bluecruise, which Ford has only just very recently actually rolled out.
At which point, is Driver+ more advanced than systems that require frequent human correction and don't handle curves and exits as well? I have to correct the truck while it's on Driver+ very infrequently while driving. When using VW or Volvo's unmapped systems I have to provide very frequent minor tweaks to what the car is doing on curves (as an example). Those systems also feel rather suicidal when approaching slow vehicles, which driver+ handles significantly better in my experience. Or are the systems that don't have hands free driving more advanced because they require intervention but don't need mapping?
I just don't buy the logic that there are only two ways to measure the level of sophistication of a system, and that's whether the systems allows hands free and whether they rely on maps. That neglects all of the other performance aspects of the system overall by focusing on what is a safety decisions (have a hand at least on the wheel, and is likely temporary), and a philosophical decision to address the problem. The latter makes more sense from an evaluation standpoint, but there is still nuance that needs to play in there.
IMO a system that doesn't need mapping but drives like a drunk 6 year old isn't more advanced than a system that drives like a reasonably safe and competent driver but is limited to a reasonable number of specific roads.
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