Driving hands-free either sounds totally amazing or entirely terrifying depending on who you ask. I happen to fall somewhere in the middle, having tried it before in small highway segments but never on a long-range voyage like the technology is intended for. But then I got to borrow a Lincoln Nautilus for a few days, aligned with a short road trip that would see approximately 150 miles of hands-free Blue Zones.
Blue Zones are areas of controlled access highways where Ford’s BlueCruise driver assistance feature is available. As a Ford subsidiary, Lincoln started rolling out BlueCruise to select models in its own fleet. This includes the Nautilus 2024, a spacious SUV that starts at about $50,000 but can be decked out to the utmost degree of luxury. Think: autonomous parking, panoramic vista roofs, door-to-door digital displays, integrated scent diffusers and more.
