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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Last night, Tesla released software update 2024.45.32.5, which includes updated versions of FSD for HW3 and HW4 vehicles. More specifically, this update includes FSD V12.6.2 for HW3 and FSD V13.2.5 for HW4 models (how to check if you have HW3 or HW4).
While there aren’t new features in this update and the FSD release notes remain the same, it does include bug fixes, which should help these FSD updates go to a wider audience.
HW3 Model 3
What’s most interesting about this update is that it’s the first time a version of FSD V12.6 is going out to the Model 3 with HW3. Previously, it was only available for the redesigned Model S, Model X, and Model Y. The Cybertruck has only ever been available with HW4, which makes the Model 3 the lone vehicle left out of the FSD 12.6 release for unknown reasons.
The FSD hardware for the Model 3 and Model Y is identical, but the camera placements shift slightly due to the different vehicle body shapes, so it’s possible that played a role.
After a long wait, Model 3 owners are finally getting a chance to try out End-to-End on the Highway, as well as many other improvements.
FSD V12.6.2 Improvements
FSD V12.6.2 shares the same changelog as V12.6.1 - so we’re not expecting major changes besides bug fixes on this particular release, at least for vehicles coming from V12.6.1. Instead, it seems the primary focus of this update is to address compatibility for the Model 3.
Overall, V12.6 is far closer to V13 than it is to V12.5.4.2 - and it really does feel that way. It is an impressive feat from Tesla to make such big and positive changes for a platform that they’ve admittedly been having some difficulties in obtaining better results. However, this really underlines the fact that they’re still committed and trying very hard to achieve Unsupervised FSD even on HW3.
The other bit of good news is that this latest FSD update is based on update 2024.45.32.x, which means that it will be available to all vehicles. While Tesla has released the next major update, version 2025.2, it’s currently only available internally. If you’ve been thinking about subscribing to FSD, now may be a good time, since you’ll qualify to receive the latest HW3 or HW4 FSD version once it rolls out widely.
Legacy Model S and Model X
While the update has begun to roll out to Model 3’s for the first time, at this point in time, we haven’t seen any legacy Model S or Model X vehicles included in this update. Those vehicles, for now, are still on FSD V12.5.4.2.
However, we do expect Tesla to add support for these vehicles. The question is whether that’s included in this update or whether it’ll be a future release.
This update has barely started rolling out - the first vehicles started receiving the update last night in a small batch. However, we will hopefully see more waves in the coming days that will progressively get larger. Expect this update to take at least two weeks to go out to the majority of HW3 vehicles if major issues aren’t found.
Now that the Model Y Juniper refresh has officially been announced in the Asia-Pacific markets, the initial vehicles from Giga Shanghai are starting to make their way to showrooms throughout the region.
And that means lots of new pictures. Let’s take a look at some of the latest close-up shots of the 2025 Model Y.
Light Bar Close-Up
Our first up-close look at the new front end of the new Model Y. This car is likely en route to a showroom prior to the start of Tesla’s big sales push for the Chinese Lunar New Year, and this is one of the closest and cleanest shots of the new front end.
The sharp new front of the Juniper
@DriveGreen80167 on X
The new front light bar is very visible, even when it’s off. It’s more than a thin strip of lights. The headlights are located directly below the light bar at either end. You can also see the new squared-away sharp lines - starting from the lightbar gaps and going up the hood. The new design looks far more aggressive and sharp when viewed at this angle.
Wheels
And the new wheels are pretty interesting, too - especially since they don’t seem to have full aero covers on them. We’re wondering if Tesla intends to introduce aero covers for these wheels later - or if they’ll just stay uncovered. They look pretty good - but the black hubcap in the center stands out against the rest of the wheel. Time will tell whether the clean black finish holds up with use.
We're a big fan of these new fan-blade wheels
@DriveGreen80167 on X
Either way, they’re pretty good looking - but we’d prefer to see them in an all black finish - similar to the Shadow Gemini’s that are currently available. Hopefully, once the Model Y refresh arrives in North America and Europe, that option will be available in addition to the Crossflow wheels.
Videos
Here is one of the first videos showing off the rear light bar.
The refreshed Model Y also brings a ton of changes to the interior. In addition to the Launch Edition exclusive dash, we also get a good shot of the new ventilated seats, as well as the return of the turn signal stalk.
The best interior shot we've seen so far
@DriveGreen80167 on X
The new Model Y also has the same new center console as the Model 3 Highland - with the two-part slider. For now, it seems like the Launch Edition will include rubber pedal covers - nothing fancy like the metallic ones available on the Performance variants yet.
Rear End Close-Up
On the rear end of the vehicle, we get a close-up view of the new reflective light bar. Tesla claims this is an industry-first, and it does look very cool. The actual light is located on the inside edge of the piece that overhangs the reflective portion. The reflective portion itself is painted to match the vehicle - and isn’t a glossy surface, but rather matte.
Gotta love that new reflective light bar
@DriveGreen80167 on X
In the next image, we can also see that the rear camera is mounted in a new location. It doesn’t have the camera lip that the 2024 Model Y has been shipping with, as the camera is now mounted on the very edge of the new raised bumper. This also means the camera is much higher up than it previously was. This location change likely means that the new Y will require some additional training time for both FSD and Actually Smart Summon, as well as the new front bumper camera.
This is going to be an interesting change - we’re not sure how this new camera location will handle snow, rain, and road muck, but this is likely the main reason for it being moved up and away from the road.
The updated camera positioning is noticeably higher
@zhongwen2005 on X
We’re excited to see the new Model Y in person. This refresh has been a long time coming and there are many details that are still waiting to be discovered.
Customer deliveries are supposed to begin in just a couple of months - May at the earliest - in the Asia-Pacific region. We’re hoping to see the refresh arrive in Europe and North America by summertime and then see the launch of the Performance variant shortly thereafter.
![Tesla's Hidden 'Elon Mode' Unveiled: A Sneak Peek into the Future of FSD [Video]](https://www.notateslaapp.com/images/news/2022/fsd-beta-inside_300w.jpg)
