Tesla’s Autopilot software gets all the headlines, but many automakers today have an equivalent hands-free driving system. Ford this week announced big changes to its BlueCruise hands-free driver assist system.
For the first time, Ford and its Lincoln luxury brand will begin installing the software as standard equipment on many vehicles for 2024. Buyers can choose to activate it anytime – even those who buy the car used years later. They’ll pay subscription fees, with terms as long as three years or as short as one month.
Is This a Self-Driving Car?
Almost every automaker is trying to develop so-called self-driving cars, but the technology is a long way from taking over most of your driving.
No automaker offers a true self-driving car today, and safety advocates have been highly critical of some for misleading marketing names that make the systems sound more capable than they are.
BlueCruise, like GM’s Super Cruise, operates on a limited subset of highways that Ford has mapped. On a suitable road, drivers can engage the system and take their hands off the wheel (though not their eyes off the road). It will speed up, slow down, and turn to hold its place in traffic and keep to the programmed route. If its sensors detect anything unexpected in traffic, it prompts the driver to take over.
Ford’s map of BlueCruise-covered routes includes interstate highways between most major U.S. cities, making it a useful fatigue-reducer for road trips.
BlueCruise does not allow you to engage in other activities while it drives. Only the Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot system is approved for that use, and only in Nevada and parts of California.
Now Standard Equipment, With Subscription Fees
In 2023, BlueCruise is available on some Ford Expedition, F-150, F-150 Lightning, and Mustang Mach-E trim levels. It’s also available on the Lincoln Navigator and Corsair. Lincoln briefly marketed the system as “ActiveGlide” before adopting the BlueCruise name; if you have ActiveGlide, you have BlueCruise.
Customers must sign up for a contract when they purchase the car.
Starting in 2024, Ford says, it will be installed as standard equipment on all the same vehicles, plus the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus. But buyers will no longer be required to opt in immediately or lose it. Instead, Ford says, “Customers with equipped vehicles can choose to activate BlueCruise at any point during their vehicle ownership journey – at purchase, annually, or even monthly.”
Buyers can roll it into the cost of a car loan if they start it at purchase.
“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,” the company says.
Buyers will be given a 90-day free trial of the software. In a rather unusual move, Ford admits in a press release that that’s an attempt to get more subscribers. Ford’s marketing team cites a recent study that showed drivers are more likely to embrace monthly fees for car features if they get a free trial first.
Subscriptions and a Sign of What’s to Come
Today, most car shoppers pay for their car and then own it. In the future, they may not quite own their cars. Rather, through a complex series of transactions, they may pay as if they own it but spend years renting its features.
Fees could be monthly. Your car might come with 20 speakers, for instance, but different plans might allow you to activate four, eight, 16, or all 20 for different fees. BMW has experimented with monthly fees to access heated seats in some markets.
They could be per-use. Volkswagen officials have publicly toyed with self-driving software that charges ticket prices to different destinations.
The fees could even apply to performance. Mercedes already lets owners of some of its electric cars rent additional horsepower by the month or year.
Ford has waded into the feature-rental plan slowly. But this latest move came with another announcement that may hint at what’s to come.
The company announced that it had “named Apple veteran Peter Stern to lead the newly formed Ford Integrated Services, which will create and market valuable software-enabled customer experiences.” Stern is the executive behind Apple TV+ and other subscription services at the tech giant. He has no automotive industry experience.
