Ford will let you take your hands off the wheel in more of its models from next year

Ford’s BlueCruise highway driving is one of the most advanced on UK roads. The level 2+ autonomous setup is described as ‘hands-off, eyes-on’, as it’s one of the few adaptive cruise control systems that actually allows you to take your hands off the wheel.

After successfully introducing this to the UK in the Mustang Mach-E model back in 2023, today it revealed the tech will be rolled out to more models in spring 2026. This includes both the electric and combustion versions of the Ford Puma, the Kuga and the new Ranger plug-in hybrid.

The technology is only available on select roads that have been approved by Ford, but now covers over 133,000 km of motorways across 15 European countries. The system uses a combination of cameras and radar to manage not use the speed and braking of the vehicle, but also the steering to keep you in lane.

Many level 2+ systems now provide a lane-centring feature, which will adjust the steering to help keep you in lane, but these generally require you to keep your hands on the steering wheel. Ford’s BlueCruise simply requires you to keep your eyes on the road, and uses in-car cameras to make sure you do. Mercedes and BMW both offer hands-off systems, but these are not currently available in the UK.

Being able to take your hands off the steering wheel helps lessen the stress of long-distance journeys. While you still need to concentrate, the BlueCruise system takes up the task of those small adjustments.

I first tried the BlueCruise system in the Mustang Mach-E GT, back in 2022 and it really is impressive. Introducing this onto more affordable models like the Kuga and Puma will allow a massive expansion for Ford and safer driving on our motorways. It’s also one thing I felt was missing from the Ford Ranger, so it’s great to see it at least coming to the new PHEV version.