The latest version of Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free highway driving software can smoothly and seamlessly initiate a hands-free lane change to pass slower moving traffic and maintain hands-free driving at the driver’s preferred speed.

This is possible because of an all-new BlueCruise 1.5 feature, Automatic Lane Change, developed by the Ford Advanced Driver Assistance (ADAS) team. Internal testing at Ford found that, on an average drive, BlueCruise 1.5 will automate up to 45% of lane changes.

BlueCruise can perform a single lane change when it detects a clear adjacent lane and there is enough time to perform the maneuver smoothly. Before BlueCruise makes an automatic lane change, a visual and audio prompt will alert the driver that a lane change is about to occur. A reason for making the maneuver will also be displayed in the driver’s information display screen in front of the steering wheel, such as if the vehicle is changing lanes for slower moving traffic or to move out of a passing lane.

A hands-free lane change will automatically occur unless the driver taps the turn signal in the opposite direction of the planned lane change or holds the steering wheel in place.

Automatic Lane Change can be disabled in the Driver Assistance settings.

Ford first introduced BlueCruise hands-free highway driving on the Mustang Mach-E. After rolling out BlueCruise 1.0 from the factory, Ford launched BlueCruise 1.2 with new features and then BlueCruise 1.3 with performance improvements around curves and in narrow lanes.

Ford is now launching BlueCruise 1.5 on the 2025 Mustang Mach-E. In addition to Automatic Lane Change, 2025 Mustang Mach-E owners will experience improvements to hands-free highway driving time in a variety of conditions delivered on BlueCruise 1.4.

Last year in the US, about 77% of BlueCruise trips taken were under 20 minutes. For highway trips longer than one hour, such as road trips, BlueCruise was used more than 50% of the time.