Do you have to give up all your driver assist features when you attach a trailer?

[Green1]

Hooked up my trailer and hit the highway this past weekend, and was extremely disappointed that I no longer had Blue Cruise, or in fact any form of lane keeping at all. On the dash it told me when I hooked up that I would lose my rear cross traffic alert, that I didn't mind so much. It didn't tell me it wasn't going to allow me to have any other driver assists!

Came from a Tesla model S, and really enjoyed using autopilot on the highway for long trips, quite disappointed that I have to go back to just cruise control.

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[Maquis]

I believe your observations are correct, and yes, it’s disappointing.
At least adaptive cruise still works.

 

[Green1]

I had planned to hold off a bit before installing openpilot, I was going to wait till the end of the 3-year trial of Blue Cruise. But if I'm not even allowed to use Blue Cruise on my road trips, which is the whole point in having it, I just might have to pull the trigger early.

 

[VAF84]

Unfortunately, you're correct. You only keep adaptive cruise. I was surprised to find out that the lane centering, which isn't technically BC, gets lost. It's pretty frustrating.

This is where GM and its towing tech jumps ahead for those who tow. Supercruise will work with a trailer. Even so, I still miss the invisible trailer camera and sideview mirror cameras that show you your trailer blindspot on video when the turning signal is on. Every truck should have that. SMH.

 

[Heliian]

Does your blindspot monitor not come available if you program your specific trailer?

In any case, the driver assist features like lane centering and bc are deactivated to prevent going out of control with a badly loaded trailer. It makes perfect sense that they don't allow it.

 

[Green1]

Does your blindspot monitor not come available if you program your specific trailer?

In any case, the driver assist features like lane centering and bc are deactivated to prevent going out of control with a badly loaded trailer. It makes perfect sense that they don't allow it.

No. It makes no sense. And apparently GM agrees. Removing safety features while towing is a horrible idea.

 

[Heliian]

No. It makes no sense. And apparently GM agrees. Removing safety features while towing is a horrible idea.

I haven't seen what gm is capable of but with the endless combination of trailers and the people who tow them, there is no safe way of auto driving with a trailer.

If it's really an inconvenience then just disconnect the wiring harness.

 

[RickLightning]

I was under the belief that if you properly entered your trailer into the system, the BLIS still functioned. Haven't towed with my truck yet, but believed I had that.

 

[Green1]

I haven't seen what gm is capable of but with the endless combination of trailers and the people who tow them, there is no safe way of auto driving with a trailer.

If it's really an inconvenience then just disconnect the wiring harness.

You might have an argument if Ford was selling self-driving, but they aren't. They're selling driver assistance.

Disconnect the wiring harness??? You're really suggesting trailering without lights or brakes???

I WILL fix this, but most likely it will be with comma.ai

 

[invertedspear]

No. It makes no sense. And apparently GM agrees. Removing safety features while towing is a horrible idea.

Safety features, yes, that's problematic. But BC isn't a safety feature, and I'd rather have the truck turn off a convenience that isn't well tested with various trailers than leave it on and it possibly make terrible mistakes. Maybe they'll figure it out in a future update, but I would think the truck would need to know things like trailer weight and tongue weight in order to use BC effectively, and not just depend on people to punch it in since people make mistakes or lie. If the truck needs that information, it's does not currently have the hardware sensors to determine it. Even if you have bed scales, the truck wouldn't know bed load vs tongue weight. Maybe it's as simple as detecting shimmy in the steering when a trailer is rear-heavy and Ford can fix it with software. Either way I'd rather they take it slow and safe than rush something to market.

GM is either a bit riskier, or they've spent more time testing supercruise to better detect feedback from the trailer.

I get the frustration, but Ford is failing safe here. I think they deserve a little grace for that instead of taking the riskier roads that Tesla does.

 

[Green1]

Lane keeping is absolutely a safety feature, and they've disabled it.

 

[VAF84]

Does your blindspot monitor not come available if you program your specific trailer?

In any case, the driver assist features like lane centering and bc are deactivated to prevent going out of control with a badly loaded trailer. It makes perfect sense that they don't allow it.

I think so, but nothing beats blind spot video. Loved it.

Would going out of control with lane centering be any different than going out of control without it? I don't see the logic.

 

[Heliian]

Would going out of control with lane centering be any different than going out of control without it?

For most people, there would be no difference but I think they're trying to avoid litigation. There are already people trying to blame bluecruise alone for causing accidents.

However, I do agree that it would be nice if they could combine sway control with the other driver assist features.

 

[djstough]

Hooked up my trailer and hit the highway this past weekend, and was extremely disappointed that I no longer had Blue Cruise, or in fact any form of lane keeping at all. On the dash it told me when I hooked up that I would lose my rear cross traffic alert, that I didn't mind so much. It didn't tell me it wasn't going to allow me to have any other driver assists!

Came from a Tesla model S, and really enjoyed using autopilot on the highway for long trips, quite disappointed that I have to go back to just cruise control.

Did you safety features remain when towing with the Model S?

 

[Green1]

Did you safety features remain when towing with the Model S?

Yes. Full autopilot was available.

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