Ford’s BlueCruise 1.4 update lets you keep your hands off the wheel for much longer

Ford is releasing a new version of its BlueCruise hands-free driving software, version 1.4, which it says will keep your hands off the wheel twice as long. The company says it can now last on average five times longer compared to last year’s version 1.2 and twice as long as version 1.3, which began rolling out recently. The company does not specify exactly how long on average you can drive a vehicle using BlueCruise.

The improvements come from new “motion controller” software that Ford says keeps a BlueCruise-equipped vehicle better centered in its lane, as well as improvements in dealing with varying weather conditions, sharp turns, narrow lanes and sun reflections.

I recently tested the BlueCruise 1.2 in a 2024 Lincoln Nautilus and felt it was already operating smoothly when cornering hard. However, after sudden rainfall, the system warned me to put my hands back on the steering wheel, so perhaps version 1.4 could improve this situation.

BlueCruise 1.4 will initially ship with the new 2025 Ford F-150 and 2025 Lincoln Navigator, and will also be available as an over-the-air (OTA) software update “for future vehicle line selection.” Ford has not confirmed which vehicles will receive the OTA update, says PR representative Whitney Pineda Edge.

According to Consumer Reports, BlueCruise is currently the best advanced driver assistance system on the market, beating out GM’s Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot. Ford says 492,000 vehicles on the road worldwide are equipped with BlueCruise.