The Mustang Mach-E with this system can already perform maneuvers that earlier versions couldn't.
Artificial intelligence is infiltrating multiple facets of our lives, and the capabilities of AI are now being used to improve Ford's hands-free driving technology known as BlueCruise. This semi-autonomous system allows drivers to drive on certain roads without their hands on the wheel, and Ford customers have now accumulated over 64 million hands-free miles.
But Ford knows that as good as BlueCruise is, it can constantly be improved. To do this, Ford has turned to machine learning to collect certain data from owners who have willingly shared information about vehicles like the Mustang Mach-E, and it is analyzing this data to see where the system might fail and how it can be enhanced.
Sammy Omari, executive director for advanced driver assist system technologies at Ford, spoke to Fox News to share some insights into how this data-collection process works.
“A fairly large number of customers do decide that they want to share data with us,” said Omari. “We are very surgical about what we're allowed to collect and not just about how we collect it, but how we handle that data internally.”
Advanced AI software automatically removes customers' personal information from the data and even blurs license plates so that by the time a specific vehicle sends a report to Ford, only relevant and non-personal information is included.
“Every time a customer has a disconnect out of hands-free to hands-on, we do collect that little bit of data, and we automatically analyze the data,” said Omari. “We want to know how our customers are using our product, where does the product sometimes fail. It's not perfect.”
Fox News Digital said that between testing a previous version of BlueCruise and the latest BlueCruise 1.2 version, there are already improvements, with the system staying engaged for longer periods than before without asking the driver to intervene.
“For the time between disconnects, we improved almost 2x, so it's kind of dramatic,” said Omari.
The machine learning aspect comes whereby the algorithm studies and learns from videos shot under changing lighting and environmental conditions, as well as by analyzing road markings on sections of highways where BlueCruise is operable.
One excellent example of the system's ability to analyze driver behavior came from a scenario where a large truck was alongside the driver in the Ford vehicle. It found that many drivers, even when using BlueCruise, would make a gentle steering adjustment to move slightly further away in their lane from the truck. BlueCruise 1.2 can now do this automatically, effectively pre-empting what would be a normal and natural reaction from a human.
The latest version of BlueCruise is also able to check for other vehicles and change lanes by itself when the driver indicates.
Ford is utilizing the power of AI in other innovative ways, too. On F-Series pickups like the F-150 Lightning, the Ford Pro Trailer Hitch Assist automatically connects a pickup to a trailer without any fuss. Once again, data collection and analysis helped Ford to develop this incredibly convenient feature.
Of course, humans are ultimately responsible for reprogramming BlueCruise once the data is analyzed, and Omari admitted that “machine learning engineers are a very rare commodity and a very expensive commodity.”
We expect more innovations from Ford by harnessing the strengths of AI since the automaker recently established Latitude AI, a division that will develop new features with focus areas including machine learning, software, robotics, and systems engineering.
Keyword: Ford Knows How To Make BlueCruise Better Than The Competition