Ford wants customers to experience their hands-free semi-autonomous driving system, so BlueCruise hardware will now come standard on a number of 2024 models and can be activated after purchase.
The move will undoubtedly drive up costs for the automaker, but the company is hoping customers will experience BlueCruise and fall in love with it. If they do, Ford will be able to rake in subscription fees.
As part of the effort to entice customers to sign up, Ford will offer a 90-day complimentary trial. This will enable owners to experience the benefits of BlueCruise and hopefully convince them to subscribe. As Ford’s Ashley Lambrix noted, “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.”
More: Ford’s BlueCruise Adds Hands-Free Lane Changes And Predictive Speed Assist
Ford will offer monthly and annual subscriptions, so customers can find the plan that bests suits their needs. They can also buy BlueCruise at purchase and get three years of service included.
While that sounds like overkill, it’s actually pretty customer-centric. If you normally don’t travel on the highway but are going on a long road trip, you could sign up for a one-month subscription to make the journey far less stressful.
However, it’s not cheap as a three year BlueCruise subscription is $2,100 at the time of order or vehicle purchase. An annual subscription is $800, while a monthly subscription will set you back $75.
BlueCruise hardware will come standard on a handful of 2024 models including the F-150, F-150 Lightning, Expedition, and Mustang Mach-E. Lincoln customers will also find it in the 2024 Nautilus and Navigator as well as select Corsair trims. All told, Ford is “projected to install BlueCruise hardware on 500,000 vehicles for the 2024 model year in North America” across both brands.
BlueCruise 1.3 Coming Soon
In other BlueCruise news, Ford announced BlueCruise 1.3 will be rolling out soon. It will arrive in 2021-2023 Mustang Mach-E vehicles first, before expanding to other models.
Ford says BlueCruise 1.3 has “improved performance when driving around curves and in narrow lanes” and “stayed engaged in hands-free mode for an average of 5X longer compared to BlueCruise 1.0, the first version of BlueCruise.” That’s a significant improvement and one that promises to make the BlueCruise experience far better.