Consumer Reports has ranked the top automated driving systems, and Ford has come out on top, beating Tesla by a wide margin.
Tesla is often in the news for its automated driving tech, and not always for the right reasons. To see which manufacturer is currently winning the battle for the best automated driving suite, CR tested options from Tesla, Ford, GM, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen, Rivian, Nissan, Honda, Volvo, and Hyundai.
Overall, Ford BlueCruise/Lincoln Active Glide came out as the clear winner by a significant margin. CR rated the system across five categories, with Ford scoring the following:
- Capabilities and Performance: 9/10
- Keeping Driver Engaged: 9/10
- Ease of Use: 6/10
- Clear When Safe to Use: 9/10
- Unresponsive Driver: 6/10
Interestingly, while BMW, Tesla, and Toyota matched Ford in the Capabilities and Performance category, only Mercedes-Benz scored a 10/10.
Overall, however, Ford’s scores across the board were higher, giving BlueCruise a total score of 84.
“Systems like BlueCruise are an important advancement that can help make driving easier and less stressful,” says Jake Fisher, CR’s senior director of auto testing.
“But they don’t make a car self-driving at all,” Fisher says. “Instead, they create a new way of collaboratively driving with the computers in your car. When automakers do it the right way, it can make driving safer and more convenient. When they do it the wrong way, it can be dangerous.”
In contrast, Tesla came seventh place with a score of only 61, which Fisher attributes to the EV maker not evolving their software to keep up with advances in technology.
“After all this time, Autopilot still doesn’t allow collaborative steering and doesn’t have an effective driver monitoring system,” Fisher adds. “While other automakers have evolved their ACC and LCA systems, Tesla has simply fallen behind.”