As Ford continues to evolve how the company offers products and services, this includes the way customers access BlueCruise – Ford’s hands-free highway driving technology. Ford now is including BlueCruise hardware standard from the factory to provide flexibility and choices to more customers.
Now, customers with equipped vehicles can choose to activate BlueCruise at any point during their vehicle ownership journey – at purchase, annually or even monthly – as well as have the opportunity to experience it through a complimentary trial if they choose not to activate at purchase. Ford is projected to install BlueCruise hardware on 500,000 vehicles for the 2024 model year in North America across Ford and Lincoln – expanding the availability onto more electric and gas-powered vehicles.
“BlueCruise is an experience-it-to-believe-it technology, and people are amazed at how BlueCruise can help make driving less stressful and more enjoyable – especially in traffic or on long drives,” said Ashley Lambrix, Head of Commercial Acceleration – Ford Model e. “We believe in this technology and how it can help transform the highway driving experience and want to give more customers the opportunity to try it and provide flexibility for them to activate it when they want to use it.”
Ford customers who know and love BlueCruise can choose to order or purchase a vehicle with BlueCruise already activated for three years. It can be rolled into the financing as part of the vehicle purchase. For customers who want to try out BlueCruise first, they can use BlueCruise for 90 days from vehicle purchase during a complimentary trial. At the end of the trial or at any point during their vehicle ownership, customers can activate it on an annual or monthly basis. Plus, to meet the needs of active or occasional users, there is no minimum length commitment required to activate it. For example, a customer could activate the service for one month for a road trip and not activate it again for another year.
Previously, customers would have to decide when ordering the vehicle if they wanted BlueCruise so the hardware could be installed. Now, Ford is removing this burden from customers, not forcing them to decide upfront if they might want access to this technology.
Expanding BlueCruise Flexible Offering to Additional Vehicle Lines
According to the results of an S&P Global Mobility study from March, consumers are willing to activate connected-car services that add value if they have the chance to try them first. In fact, 82% of respondents who had experienced a free trial or an existing connected service plan said they would “definitely” or “probably” consider purchasing a connected service on a future new vehicle purchase.
Ford first applied this approach on the Mustang Mach-E, and the company now is expanding this flexibility on all 2024 model year vehicles where BlueCruise is available – F-150 Lightning, Ford F-150 and Ford Expedition.*
BlueCruise activation for Ford customers costs $2,100 for three years at time of order or vehicle purchase. If a customer chooses not to activate upfront, after their complimentary trial they can choose an annual plan for $800 or a monthly plan for $75. If a customer chooses to forego activating BlueCruise, they can continue to experience Adaptive Cruise Control, which lets the driver set a cruising speed and distance from the vehicle ahead, including in stop-and-go traffic.
Expanding BlueCruise Offering for Lincoln Vehicles
The company also is expanding the BlueCruise offering for Lincoln customers. Now, all series of the 2024 Lincoln Navigator and Lincoln Nautilus and select trims of Lincoln Corsair will come equipped with BlueCruise hardware.** BlueCruise will also be available for the first time on the all-new Nautilus when it launches early next year.
Based on the vehicle trim, Navigator and Nautilus customers will receive either four years of BlueCruise access included at purchase or a 90-day complimentary trial with the option to choose an annual plan for $800 or a monthly plan for $75 and activate it at any point during the vehicle ownership. Corsair trims built with the BlueCruise hardware, will receive four years of access included at purchase.
BlueCruise Will Continue to Improve
BlueCruise can add value to highway driving time, helping make stop-and-go traffic for a daily commute or a long road trip easier and more enjoyable.† Customers have spent 1.4 million hours enjoying BlueCruise to date, and the number of miles driven has grown by more than 40% since the end the first quarter, reaching more than 100 million miles and counting.
Ford is continuing to improve BlueCruise with a dedicated in-house team of advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) engineers. There are currently 225,000 Ford and Lincoln vehicles equipped with BlueCruise hardware on the road today globally. By adding additional BlueCruise-equipped vehicles, Ford’s ADAS team can continue to use the power of large-scale data, which customers have agreed and opted-in to share with Ford, to deploy improvements and features to vehicles through software updates.
Earlier this year, Ford rolled out BlueCruise 1.2 and will soon be rolling out BlueCruise 1.3, first to 2021-2023 Mustang Mach-E vehicles equipped with BlueCruise hardware. The latest generation of BlueCruise software makes hands-free highway driving even better. It has improved performance when driving around curves and in narrow lanes. For example, based on our internal testing, BlueCruise 1.3 stayed engaged in hands-free mode for an average of 5X longer compared to BlueCruise 1.0, the first version of BlueCruise.
Customers can verify their BlueCruise access and status as well as renew the service via the FordPass App and Ford Account under Connected Services. If the vehicle has Ford BlueCruise capabilities, it will appear under Connected Services and include the status as well as the date the BlueCruise active service plan began.
*Ford BlueCruise requires a Connected Service plan that provides regular map updates, FordPass® App, and modem activation. Ford BlueCruise-equipped vehicles come with either a 90-day trial or a 3-year BlueCruise Connected Service plan, after which purchase is required. See ford.com/bluecruise for BlueCruise availability and version details. See the Connected Services section of your Ford Account for your BlueCruise Connected Service plan status and available plan options.
**Lincoln BlueCruise requires a Connected Service plan that provides regular map updates, Lincoln Way® App and modem activation. Lincoln BlueCruise-equipped vehicles come with either a 90-day trial or a 2 or 4-year BlueCruise Connected Service plan, after which purchase is required. See your retailer to confirm BlueCruise Connected Service plan options for your vehicle. Owners, see the Connected Services section of your Lincoln Account for your BlueCruise Connected Service plan status.
†Driver-assist features are supplemental and do not replace the driver’s attention, judgment and need to control the vehicle. BlueCruise is a hands-free highway driving feature. Only remove hands from the steering wheel when in a Hands-Free Blue Zone. Always watch the road and be prepared to resume control of the vehicle. It does not replace safe driving. See Owner’s Manual for details and limitations.
SOURCE: Ford
