- Ford has reduced the subscription price for its BlueCruise automated driver assistance system
- BlueCruise even comes with a 90-day free trial period
- Ford offers customers a one-time BlueCruise purchase option for the first time
Ford is making BlueCruise easier to access by reducing prices for the hands-free driving system on the highway.
Ford is also offering BlueCruise as a one-time purchase for the first time, alongside existing monthly and annual subscriptions. A previous three-year subscription was canceled starting with the 2025 model year.
BlueCruise-compatible vehicles even offer a 90-day free trial, and on some high-end models, the trial lasts for a year. Beyond the trial period, BlueCruise can be added as a monthly subscription costing $49.99, down from $75 previously, or as an annual subscription costing $495, down from $800 previously.
THE subscriptions can be canceled at any timemeaning a customer can add the monthly subscription and use BlueCruise for just one month, for example for vacation, and then cancel the subscription the following month.
Ford Blue Cruise 1.2
There is also a new one-time purchase option that costs $2,495. One-time purchase is only available on new 2024 or 2025 Ford and Lincoln vehicles compatible with BlueCruise and can be added when a vehicle is ordered or later as an upgrade. Ford said BlueCruise will be active for at least seven years and is non-transferable to another vehicle.
Ford said Tuesday it plans to expand BlueCruise to more vehicles across the Ford and Lincoln lineups, although specific vehicles were not mentioned.
The latest version of BlueCruise, version 1.4it was only introduced in September. Ford said the latest system can handle more challenging conditions, such as sharp turns, narrow lanes, adverse weather conditions and the sun’s reflection on sensors. This makes the system operate in hands-free mode approximately five times longer than version 1.2 released a year ago and eight times longer than the original version 1.0 launched in 2021, according to Ford.
Currently, BlueCruise can operate around 130,000 miles of divided highways in the US and Canada. Just like General Motors’ Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot with Full Self-Driving, the driver still needs to monitor the road and be ready to take control at any time, thus classifying these systems only at Level 2 in the SAE scale autonomous driving capability. Level 3 is the first ranking where the driver can take their eyes off the road, and currently only Mercedes-Benz steering pilot has a level 3 classification.