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Ford's Level-3 Autonomy Features Won't Be Ready Before 2025 and Will Be Severely Limited

Ford wants its Level-2 driver assist system BlueCruise to be used in about 500,000 vehicles by next year and has ambitious plans for autonomous driving. The Blue Oval is working on a Level-3 driver assist system allowing drivers to take their eyes off the road in geofenced areas. Still, the new system will not arrive earlier than 2025, as CEO Jima Farley confirmed.
Ford's Level-3 autonomy features won't be ready before 2025 7 photos
Photo: Ford
SAE levels of driving automationFord BlueCruise driver assistance systemFord BlueCruise driver assistance systemFord BlueCruise driver assistance systemFord BlueCruise driver assistance systemFord BlueCruise driver assistance system
The fact that Tesla's Full Self-Driving software has been classified as a Level-2 autonomy system rattled quite a few Tesla fans. They argue that the FSD is ages ahead of the competition and certainly far better than the current certified Level-3 autonomous driving systems. After all, the FSD Beta works in all driving situations, almost all weather conditions, and everywhere in the US and Canada.

What few understand is what the five levels of autonomy mean, according to the SAE classification. The graphic in the gallery is a pretty good place to start. The most crucial difference between a Level-2 driver-assist system and a Level-3 automated-driving system is responsibility and liability. As long as Tesla doesn't assume both for the FSD, it will still be Level 2, no matter how capable it is.

Ford plans to cross this boundary by enabling conditional autonomy features on its BlueCruise system in the future. Like Tesla's FSD and Autopilot, BlueCruise is now a Level-2 driver assistance system capable of offering acceleration/braking, lane centering, and automatic lane change. Despite being marketed as a "hands-free system," it also requires drivers to remain alert at all times in case they need to intervene and take over.

Ford says the BlueCruise system has already completed over 50 million miles. The figure is set to take off, as Ford expects to enable the driver-assist features in about 500,000 vehicles by next year. Still, Ford had more ambitious plans for its autonomous-driving features. There's a reason why the company kept the engineers when it shut down Argo AI last October. Back then, Ford decided that full autonomy was a lost hope and didn't want to waste any more money on that. Instead, the Blue Oval announced pursuing the Level 3 autonomous features, which seemed within reach.

Well, it appears that this is not going very well either, as Ford CEO Jim Farley admitted during a capital market event. While the company declined to say when the L3 features will be rolled out, Farley said it will not happen by 2025, being "too ambitious and undertaking." While Ford customers will have to wait longer to get Level-3 features inside their vehicles, Farley said the key use cases for the system would be stop-and-go traffic and long journeys. Farley also said the system wouldn't be able to handle complex urban environments with stop signs, parked cars, and pedestrians.
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About the author: Cristian Agatie
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After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions.
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