Taking your hands off the steering wheel and feet off the pedals while travelling at 70mph might sound like a nightmare. The car contains a system called BlueCruise, which is the UK's only legal hands-free driving technology. But would you feel safe letting a car take over for you on the motorway? Ford loaned MailOnline's Shivali Best a Mustang Mach-E for the weekend so she could find out. Taking your hands off the steering wheel and feet off the pedals while travelling at 70mph might sound like a nightmare.

Taking your hands off the steering wheel while driving on a busy M11 motorway in Essex at 70mph feels like a counterintuitive leap of faith. When a display flashes blue on the dashboard the moment has come: let go, and the car continues in its lane with no input from feet or hands. The car is a Ford Mustang Mach-E, which has this month become the first to offer hands-free driving capabilities on roads in the UK – a first for the whole of Europe, as well. It is a milestone in the shift to autonomous driving, even if, for now, it is limited to motorways. Ford is now hoping that it can persuade customers to pay for the technology.

The 2023 Ford Mustang Mach-E is equipped with the latest semi-autonomous BlueCruise highway driving system that can drive the car under certain circumstances better than the original version. The Ford Mustang Mach-E has been going to driving school. The electric SUV is one of the models that is available with Ford's BlueCruise semi-autonomous adaptive cruise control system. The feature is similar to GM's Super Cruise and allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel and feet off the pedals while the car controls its own speed and steers within a highway lane. Facial recognition technology makes sure that the drivers are keeping their eyes on the road and are ready to take back control in case of emergency.

Hands-free cars are driving on British roads for the first time after Ford launched its innovative BlueCruise technology. The'hands-off, eyes-on driving' system allows motorists to take their hands off the wheel so their vehicle can steer itself as well as accelerate and slow down. It is the first'partial automation' assisted driving feature legally passed for use on roads in Europe, having received approval from the UK government. BlueCruise relies on cameras and radar-sensing technologies to monitor nearby traffic, speed signs and road markings. So how exactly does the technology work?

Ford CEO Jim Farley enters The Fox Garage to talk about the company's increasing production, the launch of its new semi-automated driving tech division Latitude AI and his favorite Mustang. Ford disbanded its Argo AI self-driving car joint venture with Volkswagen last year, but now it's getting back into autonomy … a bit. The automaker has launched a new subsidiary, called Latitude AI, that's aimed at developing semi-autonomous advanced driver assistance systems that could be on the road soon. Ford already offers the hands-free BlueCruise system, which uses cameras, radar, GPS and highly accurate maps that allow it to control a car within a highway lane by itself as long as the driver is watching the road and ready to take over in case of emergency. Facial recognition technology ensures that they are.

The all-electric Ford F-150 Lightning, announced recently by the Ford Motor Co., will feature hands-free driving by virtue of Blue Cruise advanced driving assistance system (ADAS). The hands-free driving features will also be available on the 2021 internal combustion pickup truck and certain Mustang models through a software update later this year, according to an account in TechCrunch. The hands-free capability uses cameras, radar sensors and software to provide a combination of adaptive cruise control, lane centering and speed-sign recognition. It has undergone some 500,000 miles of development testing, Ford emphasized in an announcement in April. The system also has an in-cabin camera that monitors eye gaze and head position to help ensure the driver's eyes remain on the road.