Sam Krahn 
Earlier this week, Ford announced their all-new BlueCruise hands free driver assist technology. Like General Motors’ Super Cruise, it has mapped most of the major US roadways to allow hands-free driving, as long as the driver pays attention to the road. And with the announcement, Ford said they completed 500,000 miles of development testing before taking five 2021 F-150s and five Mustang Mach-Es on a 110,000 mile North American road trip, all to ensure the system is ready to go for customers later this year. The same can’t be said for Tesla and their Full Self Driving system according to Ford CEO Jim Farley.
Farley expressed this in a recent Tweet, which you can see below. It features a cool video of the testing behind Ford BlueCruise that’s worth checking out, but the drama stems from the caption.
BlueCruise! We tested it in the real world, so our customers don’t have to. pic.twitter.com/dgqVkWH31r
— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) April 14, 2021
“We tested in the real world, so you don’t have too!” wrote Farley, clearly pointing out the fact that Tesla’s Full Self Driving is a beta. We’ve previously mentioned the ethical dilemmas of testing a product on your customers, especially a product with the potential for a multitude of things to go terribly wrong. We’ve also mentioned the dangers of Tesla and Elon Musk referring to something as “Full Self Driving,” to an often overeager fanbase, when in reality the system isn’t full self driving at all. In one simple sentence, Farley pointed that out, and showed how Ford BlueCruise is different.
This also illustrates the kind of CEO Jim Farley is shaping up to be at Ford. For better or for worse, Elon Musk pioneered the idea of a very vocal automotive CEO, and the legacy American manufacturers haven’t followed the same path. While Farley isn’t anywhere near the same pop culture figure as Musk, he isn’t afraid to state his opinions and be a real person online. That’s plainly visible in this Tweet.
