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BlueCruise Usage Skyrockets 88% as F-150 Drivers Lead the Hands-Free Charge
January 27, 2026
by Russ Mixon, senior manager BlueCruise Go-to-Market at Ford.
Hands-free highway driving technology like BlueCruise1 is quickly moving from a “nice to have” to a “must have” feature to help make daily commutes and road trips easier.
According to a 2025 AutoPacific study, 43% of people planning to buy a new car say it is the feature they want most.
At Ford, we are seeing that demand firsthand. In 2025 alone, we put more than half a million new BlueCruise-equipped vehicles on the road across Ford and Lincoln — an 80% increase from 2024. That brings our global total to 1.22 million vehicles.
But the real insight is how much customers are actually using the technology. BlueCruise usage in the U.S. surged in 2025 — with an 88% increase in total hands-free miles driven and a 50% increase in BlueCruise trips taken by Ford and Lincoln owners compared to the previous year.
With this growth, we are taking a look back at 2025 data and trends in the U.S. as part of our second annual BlueCruise Mapped data round-up.
A note on privacy: This data is anonymized and is only collected from customers who have opted in to share it with Ford.
F-150 Crowned BlueCruise 'Superusers,' Lincoln Nautilus Usage Jumps
BlueCruise is now available across nine Ford vehicle lines — Explorer, Expedition, F-150, F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, and the entire Lincoln line-up — to give more customers who want an electric, hybrid, or gas-powered Ford vehicle access to hands-free highway driving.
In 2025, F-150, Mustang Mach-E, and F-150 Lightning customers drove the most miles and spent the most time using BlueCruise, maintaining the top spots from 2024.
As the Ford F-Series marks its 49th consecutive year as America’s best-selling truck,2F-150 customers also maintained their lead as the "BlueCruise Superusers." In 2025, F-150 customers logged the most BlueCruise miles (118 million miles) and spent the most time using BlueCruise (1.6 million hours), compared to other equipped vehicles. Notably, they increased their usage by 101% year-over-year.
With new versions of software, we have seen an increase in BlueCruise usage. In 2025, we started shipping 2025 F-150 and 2025 F-150 Lightning vehicles from the factory with one of our latest versions of software, BlueCruise 1.4. We also deployed the first BlueCruise software update to eligible truck owners. Depending on the model year, it took eligible F-150 and F-150 Lightning owners from BlueCruise 1.0 or 1.2 all the way to BlueCruise 1.4.
This software upgrade enabled an even better hands-free highway driving experience for truck customers, as evidenced by F-150 Lightning customers who drove over 32 million miles using BlueCruise, nearly a 60% increase from the previous year.
But the biggest change in usage came from Lincoln Nautilus customers. They drove over 11.3 million miles and spent nearly 160,000 hours using BlueCruise — a nearly 250% increase from the previous year and the largest year-over-year increase of any Ford or Lincoln vehicle line. We expect usage to rise even further in 2026 with the new Lincoln Nautilus shipping to customers with BlueCruise 1.5 and Automatic Lane Change.
BlueCruise Road Trips Up 120% in 2025
Customers continued to use BlueCruise for shorter trips such as daily commutes, as over 60% of BlueCruise trips taken in 2025 were under 20 minutes. Yet longer drives, like road trips, had a huge uptick.
In the U.S., there were over 1.6 million BlueCruise trips taken on controlled access highways that were over one hour, representing a 120% increase from 2024. This data re-affirms that customers are seeing the value BlueCruise can deliver, especially when taking a summer vacation or going to see grandmother for the holidays.
Holidays Are the Most Popular Time to Use BlueCruise
Thanksgiving took the lead over Labor Day in 2025 with the most BlueCruise trips taken. The most popular day to use BlueCruise in 2025 was November 21, the Friday before Thanksgiving, with over 72,000 trips taken. This surge on a single day suggests many folks were likely making one last commute, then departing for the holiday week.
In fact, there were 28,000 more trips taken on this day than the most popular day in 2024, which was Friday, August 30 (Labor Day Weekend). That’s a nearly 40% increase.
The holiday week in December was also a hot time to travel. Saturday, December 27 stole the top spot for the most BlueCruise miles and hours driven on a single day, with over 1.2 million miles and nearly 18,000 hours, an over 100% increase in usage when compared to the peak day from the previous year (Saturday, December 20). However, December 20 followed close behind as the second highest peak day in 2025 with 1.24 million miles and over 17,400 hours.
States Leading From Coast to Coast
The five states with the most BlueCruise usage across the U.S. maintained their lead from 2024 to 2025 with customers in California, Michigan, Texas, Florida, and Ohio driving the most miles and spending the most time hands-free.
California maintained its three-year lead across all 50 states with over 23 million BlueCruise miles and over 370,000 hours driven in 2025, a 51% increase from 2024.
Looking Ahead to 2026
To date, customers have logged over half a billion miles globally (600+ million miles) using BlueCruise. We expect this number to only grow in 2026 as BlueCruise debuts on four additional vehicle lines in Europe.
This year, we will also mark another significant milestone as we roll out our latest version of software, BlueCruise 1.5, which includes Automatic Lane Change capability, to the first gasoline and hybrid-powered vehicles: the 2026 Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator, and Lincoln Nautilus SUVs.
The expansion underscores our team’s commitment to invest in the BlueCruise software across a variety of vehicle types, whether equipped from the factory or via software updates, to continue delivering performance improvements or new features.
Russ Mixon is senior manager BlueCruise Go-to-Market at Ford.
January 27, 2026
by Russ Mixon, senior manager BlueCruise Go-to-Market at Ford.
Hands-free highway driving technology like BlueCruise1 is quickly moving from a “nice to have” to a “must have” feature to help make daily commutes and road trips easier.
According to a 2025 AutoPacific study, 43% of people planning to buy a new car say it is the feature they want most.
At Ford, we are seeing that demand firsthand. In 2025 alone, we put more than half a million new BlueCruise-equipped vehicles on the road across Ford and Lincoln — an 80% increase from 2024. That brings our global total to 1.22 million vehicles.
But the real insight is how much customers are actually using the technology. BlueCruise usage in the U.S. surged in 2025 — with an 88% increase in total hands-free miles driven and a 50% increase in BlueCruise trips taken by Ford and Lincoln owners compared to the previous year.
With this growth, we are taking a look back at 2025 data and trends in the U.S. as part of our second annual BlueCruise Mapped data round-up.
A note on privacy: This data is anonymized and is only collected from customers who have opted in to share it with Ford.
F-150 Crowned BlueCruise 'Superusers,' Lincoln Nautilus Usage Jumps
BlueCruise is now available across nine Ford vehicle lines — Explorer, Expedition, F-150, F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, and the entire Lincoln line-up — to give more customers who want an electric, hybrid, or gas-powered Ford vehicle access to hands-free highway driving.
In 2025, F-150, Mustang Mach-E, and F-150 Lightning customers drove the most miles and spent the most time using BlueCruise, maintaining the top spots from 2024.
As the Ford F-Series marks its 49th consecutive year as America’s best-selling truck,2F-150 customers also maintained their lead as the "BlueCruise Superusers." In 2025, F-150 customers logged the most BlueCruise miles (118 million miles) and spent the most time using BlueCruise (1.6 million hours), compared to other equipped vehicles. Notably, they increased their usage by 101% year-over-year.
With new versions of software, we have seen an increase in BlueCruise usage. In 2025, we started shipping 2025 F-150 and 2025 F-150 Lightning vehicles from the factory with one of our latest versions of software, BlueCruise 1.4. We also deployed the first BlueCruise software update to eligible truck owners. Depending on the model year, it took eligible F-150 and F-150 Lightning owners from BlueCruise 1.0 or 1.2 all the way to BlueCruise 1.4.
This software upgrade enabled an even better hands-free highway driving experience for truck customers, as evidenced by F-150 Lightning customers who drove over 32 million miles using BlueCruise, nearly a 60% increase from the previous year.
But the biggest change in usage came from Lincoln Nautilus customers. They drove over 11.3 million miles and spent nearly 160,000 hours using BlueCruise — a nearly 250% increase from the previous year and the largest year-over-year increase of any Ford or Lincoln vehicle line. We expect usage to rise even further in 2026 with the new Lincoln Nautilus shipping to customers with BlueCruise 1.5 and Automatic Lane Change.
BlueCruise Road Trips Up 120% in 2025
Customers continued to use BlueCruise for shorter trips such as daily commutes, as over 60% of BlueCruise trips taken in 2025 were under 20 minutes. Yet longer drives, like road trips, had a huge uptick.
In the U.S., there were over 1.6 million BlueCruise trips taken on controlled access highways that were over one hour, representing a 120% increase from 2024. This data re-affirms that customers are seeing the value BlueCruise can deliver, especially when taking a summer vacation or going to see grandmother for the holidays.
Holidays Are the Most Popular Time to Use BlueCruise
Thanksgiving took the lead over Labor Day in 2025 with the most BlueCruise trips taken. The most popular day to use BlueCruise in 2025 was November 21, the Friday before Thanksgiving, with over 72,000 trips taken. This surge on a single day suggests many folks were likely making one last commute, then departing for the holiday week.
In fact, there were 28,000 more trips taken on this day than the most popular day in 2024, which was Friday, August 30 (Labor Day Weekend). That’s a nearly 40% increase.
The holiday week in December was also a hot time to travel. Saturday, December 27 stole the top spot for the most BlueCruise miles and hours driven on a single day, with over 1.2 million miles and nearly 18,000 hours, an over 100% increase in usage when compared to the peak day from the previous year (Saturday, December 20). However, December 20 followed close behind as the second highest peak day in 2025 with 1.24 million miles and over 17,400 hours.
States Leading From Coast to Coast
The five states with the most BlueCruise usage across the U.S. maintained their lead from 2024 to 2025 with customers in California, Michigan, Texas, Florida, and Ohio driving the most miles and spending the most time hands-free.
California maintained its three-year lead across all 50 states with over 23 million BlueCruise miles and over 370,000 hours driven in 2025, a 51% increase from 2024.
Looking Ahead to 2026
To date, customers have logged over half a billion miles globally (600+ million miles) using BlueCruise. We expect this number to only grow in 2026 as BlueCruise debuts on four additional vehicle lines in Europe.
This year, we will also mark another significant milestone as we roll out our latest version of software, BlueCruise 1.5, which includes Automatic Lane Change capability, to the first gasoline and hybrid-powered vehicles: the 2026 Ford Explorer, Lincoln Aviator, and Lincoln Nautilus SUVs.
The expansion underscores our team’s commitment to invest in the BlueCruise software across a variety of vehicle types, whether equipped from the factory or via software updates, to continue delivering performance improvements or new features.
Russ Mixon is senior manager BlueCruise Go-to-Market at Ford.
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