[Installed] 2024 Ranger XLT Openpilot Level 2 ADAS (Blue Cruise Alternative)

[Aemonn]

Saw a YouTuber use a 1.5# wrist weight on the steering wheel and accomplished the same thing with lane assist and adaptive cruise control. Drove hours on the interstate and never touched the wheel.

Not the same thing. Stock lane keep is pretty horrible. It loses sight of lines constantly and leads to a high level of anxiety. If it works for someones needs, then it's obviously a good solution for them. Having done both, using a weight with stock lane keep is like using a brick on your throttle for cruise control and saying it competes with ACC.

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[Aemonn]

Okay this interests me, as part of the reason I didn't invest in this is because most of our long driving will be hauling.

How does Comma/Openpilot switch lanes safely when you are hauling a camper or a trailer, since it is only a forward facing camera?

Lane changes are done by nudging the wheel. The How aggressively the lane change happens can be dialed in with blue pilot, though the adjustment is not intuitive from a "laymen consumer" perspective.

When you engage your turn signal and nudge the wheel, that initiates a lane change. I'm fairly certain the lane change cancels if blind spot detection is positive. I've only experienced this once and it's not something I'm going to test thoroughly. I think blind spot might be disabled with a trailer or at least cross traffic alert. You are responsible for initiating lane change and making sure the lane you want to go into is clear.

The comma 3/3x does have a rear facing camera that sees the cabin and can see through windows in the car. I don't think this is currently used but there has been talks about including that information in the future.

The steering torque is easy enough to overcome so if you initiate a lane change and want to cancel you can force the wheel straight. The lane change will auto cancel after a few seconds of this, or you just tap the accelerator or brakes, or cancel cruise control on your steering wheel. Open pilot is turned on / off using cruise control.

Bluepilot has a feature, that comes from sunnypilot which bluepilot is built upon where you can turn on cruise control but disable it (cc is on, but speed is canceled). Here openpilot is still engaged without gas / brake control. What this means is that you get steering assist but control throttle yourself.

I found this very helpful when on dirt roads or going up / down grade where I wanted to have direct control over the engine RPM / vehicle speed, but still have the steering wheel assist engaged.

I'll most always have steering engaged when driving. I will keep a hand lightly on the steering wheel, sometimes just grabbing it with a couple fingers at the bottom of the wheel. This way my attention can be on other things, like checking mirrors, looking around and if I feel the steering wheel adjust I snap attention back to the front.

My trailer is pretty stable and well below the weight rating of the ranger. I didn't experience any issues. YMMV with a higher loaded trailer. My trailer is 2000 lbs fully loaded on a 2200lbs axle running 31" tires, torsion axle, unbraked. Tongue weight was around 130-150lbs. Trailer is level.

I equate open pilot to when cruise control first came out decades ago. Instead of having tension in your foot holding speed throughout a trip, you were able to keep foot off the pedal. It does the same thing for steering. It's like going from an '80's car to a 2024 with automatic cruise control. All combined I find it makes for a safer and more enjoyable experience. You still need to pay attention to the road. You are 100% still in control and 100% still responsible. This isn't self driving (yet). But the tools make it so that you're not making the micro adjustments as you go down the road. It makes it possible to spend more of your focus on situational awareness.

It also makes it easier to eat while driving among other things, but those are YMMV, be responsible and use proper judgement. On a limited access road, that's fairly straight you get more freedom to shift focus than a twisty mountain road, high grade road or high traffic situations with people cutting in / out.

I will say, in bumper to bumper traffic it really excels. It handles people cutting in front at low speed (sub 20mph) really well.. that's on the stock ACC, but the lane centering and stop and go makes traffic much more tolerable.

 

[Aemonn]

Here are some images from my trip with trailer in tow.

 

[Aemonn]

Video of one of my first drives running OP in the ranger last summer.

 

[SolarWinds]

Video of one of my first drives running OP in the ranger last summer.

Definitely the best video of it in the Ranger yet. How did you route that cable and how long of a USB extension did you use?

 

[Aemonn]

Definitely the best video of it in the Ranger yet. How did you route that cable and how long of a USB extension did you use?

Link to my exact cable is here: https://www.ranger6g.com/forum/thre...das-blue-cruise-alternative.16134/post-247268

I routed it from behind the dash, up the driver side A pillar (there is a channel for wires, i added it in there to not interfere with the airbag), across the headliner (just tucked int behind) and then through the camera box to the passenger side. I then looped it up in the headliner to force it to come down toward the rear view mirror box so that it'll have tension in that direction and stay tucked against it.

Here's a photo that shows it a bit better.

 

[SolarWinds]

Looks pretty clean. Nice work. Maybe you could dremel out a little notch in the housing attached to the mirror to run the cable. Might give that a shot one day

 

[rxv_poor]

Link to my exact cable is here: https://www.ranger6g.com/forum/thre...das-blue-cruise-alternative.16134/post-247268

I routed it from behind the dash, up the driver side A pillar (there is a channel for wires, i added it in there to not interfere with the airbag), across the headliner (just tucked int behind) and then through the camera box to the passenger side. I then looped it up in the headliner to force it to come down toward the rear view mirror box so that it'll have tension in that direction and stay tucked against it.

Here's a photo that shows it a bit better.

Does the monitor have to be there?

 

[Aemonn]

Does the monitor have to be there?

The screen? Yes. it's an all in one unit that contains the cameras (two front, narrow and wide angle, one rear).

 

[rxv_poor]

The screen? Yes. it's an all in one unit that contains the cameras (two front, narrow and wide angle, one rear).

Thank you

 

[Garaged]

Only a matter of time until Ranger gets TRON (CAN bus encryption, booo).

Does that imply that Comma 3x installed in 24 Ranger might end up not working one day? Or would it only affect whichever model year (let's say '26) that TRON encryption shows up in?

I'm considering a Comma 3x seriously since we don't have the option for BlueCruise, but I'm wondering what doesn't work in the Ranger (Raptor) that works with all other vehicles that Comma/Openpilot works in. I'm also a bit worried seeing how the 24 F150 doesn't allow Comma 3x to work.

 

[Aemonn]

Does that imply that Comma 3x installed in 24 Ranger might end up not working one day? Or would it only affect whichever model year (let's say '26) that TRON encryption shows up in?

I'm considering a Comma 3x seriously since we don't have the option for BlueCruise, but I'm wondering what doesn't work in the Ranger (Raptor) that works with all other vehicles that Comma/Openpilot works in. I'm also a bit worried seeing how the 24 F150 doesn't allow Comma 3x to work.

No. As far as I know, these types of encryption are set up from the factory and each part in the vehicle has a matching key embedded in it that decrypts the the encrypted CAN message. It can't simply be pushed out via a software update.

The open pilot is still in development. The Ranger can do pretty much everything any other car can in regards to lane centering (lateral control) and stop and go (longitudinal control). Currently open pilot is great at lateral and the longitudinal is still being worked on. Longitudinal includes automatic cruise control, stopping for stop signs, stopping for stop lights, etc.

If you go here (https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/blob/master/docs/CARS.md#dont-see-your-car-here) and scroll to the ford ranger, you'll see it has the same capabilities as other cars in columns 5-8. Both lateral and longitudinal control are maintained down to a stop (columns 5 and 6) has good steering torque (gold star in column 7) can resume from a stop ( star in 8)

 

[Garaged]

No. As far as I know, these types of encryption are set up from the factory and each part in the vehicle has a matching key embedded in it that decrypts the the encrypted CAN message. It can't simply be pushed out via a software update.

The open pilot is still in development. The Ranger can do pretty much everything any other car can in regards to lane centering (lateral control) and stop and go (longitudinal control). Currently open pilot is great at lateral and the longitudinal is still being worked on. Longitudinal includes automatic cruise control, stopping for stop signs, stopping for stop lights, etc.

If you go here (https://github.com/commaai/openpilot/blob/master/docs/CARS.md#dont-see-your-car-here) and scroll to the ford ranger, you'll see it has the same capabilities as other cars in columns 5-8. Both lateral and longitudinal control are maintained down to a stop (columns 5 and 6) has good steering torque (gold star in column 7) can resume from a stop ( star in 8)

Thanks for the detailed reply. Is the $1100ish + install worth it compared to the factory ACC if all I want it for is long highway drives? Or is the factory ACC good enough if that's the only use case (since this involves no stop lights and such)?

I think my only annoyance with the OEM ACC is that it thinks my hands are off the wheel unless I actively keep shaking it to make it think I am.

 

[Aemonn]

In my opinion, yes, worth it. Check my video in my previous post for a driving example. I wouldn't pay someone else to install it. It's super easy. If you decide to do it, dm me and I'll walk you through the install.

 

[Garaged]

In my opinion, yes, worth it. Check my video in my previous post for a driving example. I wouldn't pay someone else to install it. It's super easy. If you decide to do it, dm me and I'll walk you through the install.

Appreciate that. Sorry about all the questions, but I'm guessing nothing about the install is going to end up any easier anytime soon with any coming-soon updates right? You'd still need to connect the harness behind the dash and to the OBD port? No chance of hooking up to the mirror area in the future?

Been trying to read up on github, reddit, other Ford forums and elsewhere.

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