Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn now is including the company’s BlueCruise hands-free driving hardware standard from the factory on some of the company’s vehicles, and is giving customers a chance to use BlueCruise through a complimentary trial period.
Ford first made BlueCruise available on the Mustang Mach-E, and the company is expanding this to all 2024 model year vehicles where BlueCruise is available — F-150 Lightning, Ford F-150, and Ford Expedition.
The company 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,” says Ashley Lambrix, head of commercial acceleration at 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 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.
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 percent 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.
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.
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.
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.
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