Ford to offer hands-free driving by 2021

Saturday, 20 June 2020

This is Ford's Active Driver Assist in action.

A lot of cars have Level 2 autonomy these days but none will legally let you take your hands off the wheel. Ford's system will.

The new system is called Active Drive Assist (ADA), the crown jewel of Ford's 'Co-Pilot 360' driver assist suite, arriving first on the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV before hitting other 2021 products.

However, Mach-E buyers will need to spec the Active 2.0 Prep package first, a factory option that installed all the required hardware for ADA.

A Mustang Mach-E driving all by itself. Ford's semi-autonomous tech will eventually roll out to other models too.

Then, in the second half of 2021, Ford will sell the software upgrade to enable ADA, set to be available either at Ford dealers or over-the-air.

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So basically, you'll need to buy two things to get hands-free driving in your 2021 Ford. There isn't any pricing yet but that probably won't be a cheap endeavour, although Ford's global programs director for BEVs, Darren Palmer, told Motor1.com that pricing for the total system “will be highly competitive.”

“We want as many people to have [ADA] as possible,” Palmer said.

ADA will work like GM's Super Cruise system. It uses exterior sensors and pre-mapped sections of road to allow total hands-off driving, though the driver should still remain alert and ready to take control. Ford has currently mapped about 160,000km of North American roads, but that only covers divided highways.

Don't expect ADA to land in NZ anytime soon though. While Tesla can offer Autopilot functionality here, that system legally requires users to keep their hands on the wheel while active, despite what the name might indicate. Ford's system needs pre-existing map data to work, and we don't have the right infrastructure yet.