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Ford’s BlueCruise is well positioned to compete with Tesla’s and GM’s semi-autonomous driving systems, albeit for a new monthly fee.
Hands-Free Ain’t Free
Ford’s new hands-free driver assist aka BlueCruise has been getting new updates and an expanded roster of thusly equipped vehicles to go along with a new business model. Ford has been hard at work advancing and deploying their BlueCruise driver assistance tech with the hopes of enticing uptake from new car buyers. BlueCruise will indeed need to be competitive with similar systems from GM and Tesla because Ford’s will now come as a subscription-based service.
What is Ford BlueCruise?
BlueCruise is Ford’s advanced driver assistance technology that includes hands-free driving in specific scenarios. Like Tesla’s speciously titled Full Self-Driving (FSD) and GM’s Super Cruise, Ford’s BlueCruise is a Level Two autonomous driving system that can take over major inputs like steering, throttle, and braking but still requires the constant attention of a driver who can take over at any time. (For more on autonomous driving levels, click here.)
Ford’s system uses a combination of forward-facing cameras, radar, and GPS and map data to orient and control the vehicle when BlueCruise is engaged. Currently, Ford says BlueCruise operates on pre-qualified roads and highways comprising some 130,000 miles, or 97% of “controlled access” highways in the US and Canada. These roadways encompass what Ford calls “Blue Zones.”
Ford’s Subscription-Based Strategy
Ford’s BlueCruise system will come as standard equipment on select new vehicles. Those new vehicles will offer BlueCruise on a provisional basis for 90 days, where thereafter owners can opt to keep the feature by paying a monthly subscription fee of $75 a month or an $800 annual fee. Ford’s hope is owners will like the BlueCruise enough that they’ll pay to keep it.
It’s an interesting gamble at the very least as car buyers are increasingly wary of new subscription-based features, from remote start to heated seats, that manufacturers have been adopting. Consider this: the average monthly payment for a new car in the US is $725 a month, and the average monthly payment for a used car sits at $516 a month. This means a BlueCruise subscription fee would add between 10 and 15 percent to the average car payment. We’ll have to wait and see how much record car prices and high interest rates cut into BlueCruise’s subscription uptake.
BlueCruise 1.2 and 1.3
Regardless of future adoption rates, Ford continues apace at improving on the BlueCruise product. Earlier this year Ford released the first major update to BlueCruise, BlueCruise 1.2. This iteration added three major features: Lane Change Assist, Predictive Speed Assist, and In-Lane Repositioning. Lane Change Assist allows drivers to use a flick of the turn signal to change lanes. The new feature can also “suggest” a lane change if traffic in the current lane is slower than others and make the change automatically. The Predictive Speed Assist feature helps slow the vehicle into curves and accelerate back out. In-Lane Repositioning is designed to automatically adjust lane orientation based on traffic conditions i.e., approaching a semi or wide load vehicle on the highway.
Even though BlueCruise 1.2 had only been deployed for a few months, Ford promptly released its successor BlueCruise 1.3 on the Ford Mustang Mach-E EV, starting all units built after June 30th of this year. Ford says BlueCruise 1.3 will see wider release via over-the-air updates in late summer. The latest version of BlueCruise is said to improve cornering and the navigation of narrow lanes, while also staying engaged longer without requesting driver intervention.
Ford’s executive director of advanced driver assistance technology, Sammy Omuri, says the company hopes that rapid iteration of BlueCruise will both quickly advanced the technology while also keeping customers engaged, likening their approach to Netflix’s desire for new, fresh content. Still, Ford says the BlueCruise system will remain Level Two, that is, requiring human intervention at a moment’s notice, for the foreseeable future as Level Three capabilities would require new hardware that the current fleet is not equipped with.
Ford’s BlueCruise driver assistance tech is now available on the new Ford Mustang Mach-E, the Ford F-150, the F-150 Lightning, and the Ford Expedition as well as the Lincoln Corsair and Lincoln Navigator.
