Sandy Munro gets a chance to go in a Ford Mach E with a representative of Ford, and he experiences Ford's Blue Cruise. The Ford guy just wants to talk about Blue Cruise, but Sandy can't seem to restrain himself from making comparisons with Tesla. This is probably not what the Ford guy wanted him to do.
First of all, it was clear that Ford's Blue Cruise is available only on limited access highways. And Blue Cruise isn't connected to the GPS navigation system at all. It won't steer you off at your appropriate off ramp. So the appropriate comparison is Blue Cruise vs Autopilot. Autopilot works on any road where there are painted lane markers, Blue Cruise works only on limited access highways. And Blue Cruise won't change lanes for you. You need to take control and do that manually. Ford is thinking about adding that feature in the future.
Ford advertises that Blue Cruise is a hands-free system. It uses a cabin-facing camera to make sure that the driver is paying attention. It will allow the driver to look away from the road briefly, but it will send the driver a reminder to pay attention after a few seconds of inattentive driving. Blue Cruise will stop working if the driver continues to be inattentive. The video doesn't make clear what, exactly, happens when Blue Cruise stops working due to the driver's sudden inability to pay attention.
There's another issue with hands-free driving. It's a reaction time issue. A long time ago in a previous millennium, when I took Driver Education, we saw a movie that I still remember. In the movie, a car was rigged so the front seat passenger, the instructor, could secretly push a button that would make a noise and shoot a chalk mark onto the road. The driver was told to immediately slam on the brake. At that point, the car shot another chalk mark onto the road. Then, a bit farther along, the car came to a stop.
It takes the brain about three quarters of a second to realize that an emergency exists and another three quarters of a second to move the foot off the accelerator and get it slammed down on the brake. At 65 miles an hour, the car will have traveled 96 feet down the road before a human being can initiate the stopping process. A few phantom braking events are a small price to pay for a quicker response to an emergency stop situation. So what does that have to do with hands-free Blue Cruise?
The brain still needs to see a situation that demands a sudden avoidance maneuver. Then it must decide which way to turn the steering wheel and how much to turn it. That delay will increase by the same one and a half seconds of effective inaction if the brain has to first figure out how to get the hands onto the steering wheel and then get them there before it can initiate a calculation about which way and how much to steer for the avoidance maneuver. That means you're 96 feet further down the road before you start the avoidance maneuver if your hands are off the steering wheel when an emergency becomes evident.
So I have to say that for level 2 autonomy, where the driver may need to take over quickly, it's better if the hands are already on the wheel.
There was another odd quirk about Blue Cruise. Sandy Munro was chatting with the Ford guy when he suddenly noticed a visual, but not audible, warning that he had to take control of steering. This was on a limited access highway going seventy miles an hour. It's a good thing he noticed it because Blue Cruise poops out when it sees a "sharp curve."
This particular curve was on a limited access highway. It wasn't sharp enough to require a reduction in the speed limit. I foresee that this will become an issue when drivers don't notice that Blue Cruise has quit working and the car drifts to the outside of the curve and out of its lane.
Autopilot stops working around sharp curves, too. But Autopilot gives an audible signal, your hands are already on the wheel, and Autopilot's definition of a sharp curve is one where you have to slow down to 20mph, not one that you can negotiate at highway speeds.
My advice? Don't ride in a car with Ford Blue Cruise.
Ford's Blue Cruise technology is way behind what Tesla offers today, not even considering the FSD Beta, which should become available to the public later this year. As Tesla advances further in vehicle autonomy, they'll be solving problems Ford has yet to come across. It's great to see that Tesla has started the electric revolution in cars, but Tesla's competition won't come with existing auto makers.
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Tesla appears to be preparing to expand its Robotaxi geofence in Austin, Texas, with numerous engineering vehicles taking to the road. One of the most interesting sights, between the short and tall LiDAR rigs, was a Cybertruck validation vehicle, which we don’t often see.
Tesla’s expansion is moving the Robotaxi Network into downtown Austin, a dense urban environment that is currently outside the geofence. It appears Tesla is content with the latest builds of Robotaxi FSD and is ready to take on urban traffic.
The inclusion of a Cybertruck in the validation fleet is noteworthy, as the rest of the vehicles are Model Ys. This suggests that Tesla may be addressing two challenges simultaneously: expanding its service area while also addressing the FSD gap between the Cybertruck and other HW4 Tesla vehicles.
Tesla Validating Downtown Austin before expanding the Robotaxi geo-fence area. pic.twitter.com/ylFATtjcDi
Recent sightings have shown a fleet of Tesla vehicles, equipped with rooftop validation sensor rigs, running routes throughout downtown Austin and across the South Congress Bridge. While these rigs include LiDAR, it’s not a sign that Tesla is abandoning its vision-only approach.
Instead, Tesla uses the high-fidelity data from the LiDAR as a ground truth measurement to validate and improve the performance of its cameras. In short, it essentially uses the LiDAR measurements as the actual distances and then compares the distances determined in vision-only to the LiDAR measurements. This allows Tesla to tweak and improve its vision system without needing LiDAR.
This data collection in a new, complex environment right outside the Robotaxi geofence is an indicator that plans to expand the geofence. Tesla has previously indicated that they intend to roll out more vehicles and expand the geofence slowly. Given that their operational envelope includes the entire Austin Metro Area, we can expect more locations to open up gradually.
Once they expand the operational radius to include downtown Austin, they will likely also have to considerably increase the number of Robotaxis active in the fleet at any given time. Early-access riders are already saying that the wait time for a Robotaxi is too long, with them sometimes having to wait 15 minutes to be picked up.
With a larger service area, we expect Tesla to also increase the number of vehicles and the number of invited riders to try out the service.
After all, Tesla’s goal is to expand the Robotaxi Network to multiple cities within the United States by the end of 2025. Tesla has already been running an employees-only program in California, and we’ve seen validation vehicles as far away as Boston and New Jersey, on the other side of the country.
Cyber FSD Lagging Behind
One of the most significant details from these recent sightings is the presence of a Cybertruck. Cybertruck’s FSD builds have famously lagged behind the builds available on the rest of Tesla’s HW4 fleet. Key features that were expected never fully materialized for the Cybertruck, and the list of missing features is quite extensive.
Start FSD from Park
Improved Controller
Reverse on FSD
Actually Smart Summon
It may not look like a lot, but if you drive a Cybertruck on FSD and then hop in any of the rest of Tesla’s HW4 vehicles, you’ll notice a distinct difference. This is especially evident on highways, where the Cybertruck tends to drift out of the lane, often crossing over the lane markings.
Tesla was testing parts of Downtown Austin, TX with this Cybertruck which had a massive roof rack, and sensors.
We previously released an exclusive mentioning that a well-positioned internal source confirmed with us that a new FSD build for the Cybertruck was upcoming, but we never ended up receiving that particular build, only a point release to V13.2.9. The AI team’s focus had clearly shifted to getting the latest Robotaxi builds running and validated, and while a flagship, the Cybertruck fleet was small and new, and really a secondary task.
The Cybertruck’s larger size, steer-by-wire, rear-wheel steering, and different camera placements likely present a bigger set of challenges for FSD. Deploying it now as a validation vehicle in a complex environment like downtown Austin suggests that Tesla is finally gathering the specific data needed to bring the Cybertruck’s capabilities up to par. This focused effort is likely the necessary step to refine FSD’s handling of the Cybertruck before they begin rolling out new public builds.
When?
Once Tesla’s validation is complete, we can probably expect the Robotaxi Network to expand its borders for the first time in the coming days or weeks. However, we’ll likely see more signs of the expansion, such as Robotaxi vehicles driving themselves around the area, before the expansion actually happens.
Hopefully, the Cybertruck will also learn from its older siblings and receive the rest of its much-needed FSD features, alongside an FSD update for the entire fleet.
Tesla is rolling out a fairly big update for its iOS and early-access-only Robotaxi app, delivering a suite of improvements that address user feedback from the initial launch last month. The update improves the user experience with increased flexibility, more information, and overall design polish.
The most prominent feature in this update is that Tesla now allows you to adjust your pickup location. Once a Robotaxi arrives at your pickup location, you have 15 minutes to start the ride. The app will now display the remaining time your Robotaxi will wait for you, counting down from 15:00. The wait time is also shown in the iOS Live Activity if your phone is on the lock screen.
How Adjustable Pickups Work
We previously speculated that Tesla had predetermined pickup locations, as the pickup location wasn’t always where the user was. Now, with the ability to adjust the pickup location, we can clearly see that Tesla has specific locations where users can be picked up.
Rather than allowing users to drop a pin anywhere on the map, the new feature works by having the user drag the map to their desired area. The app then presents a list of nearby, predetermined locations to choose from. Once a user selects a spot from this curated list, they hit “Confirm.” The pickup site can also be changed while the vehicle is en route.
This specific implementation raises an interesting question: Why limit users to predetermined spots? The answer likely lies in how Tesla utilizes fleet data to improve its service.
Here is the new Tesla Robotaxi pickup location adjustment feature.
While the app is still only available on iOS through Apple’s TestFlight program, invited users can download and update the app.
Tesla included these release notes in update 25.7.0 of the Robotaxi app:
You can now adjust pickup location
Display the remaining wait time at pickup in the app and Live Activity
Design improvements
Bug fixes and stability improvements
Nic Cruz Patane
Why Predetermined Pick Up Spots?
The use of predetermined pickup points is less of a limitation and more of a feature. These curated locations are almost certainly spots that Tesla’s fleet data has identified as optimal and safe for an autonomous vehicle to perform a pickup or drop-off.
This suggests that Tesla is methodically “mapping” its service area not just for calibration and validation of FSD builds but also to help perform the first and last 50-foot interactions that are critical to a safe and smooth ride-hailing experience.
An optimal pickup point likely has several key characteristics identified by the fleet, including:
A safe and clear pull-away area away from traffic
Good visibility for cameras, free of obstructions
Easy entry and exit paths for an autonomous vehicle
This change to pick-up locations reveals how Tesla’s Robotaxi Network is more than just Unsupervised FSD. There are a lot of moving parts, many of which Tesla recently implemented, and others that likely still need to be implemented, such as automated charging.
Frequent Updates
This latest update delivers a much-needed feature for adjusting pickup locations, but it also gives us a view into exactly what Tesla is doing with all the data it is collecting with its validation vehicles rolling around Austin, alongside its Robotaxi fleet.
Tesla is quickly iterating on its app and presumably the vehicle’s software to build a reliable and predictable network, using data to perfect every aspect of the experience, from the moment you hail the ride to the moment you step out of the car.
![Tesla Updates Robotaxi App: Adds Adjustable Pick Up Locations, Shows Wait Time and More [VIDEO]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/img/containers/article_images/tesla-app/robotaxi-app/25-7-0/robotaxi-app-25.7.0.webp/4ac9ed40be870cfcf6e851fce21c43b9/robotaxi-app-25.7.0.jpg)
