Ford Expands BlueCruise Availability with Complimentary Trial, Monthly Or Annual Activation

[leehinde]

There are now three different pricing strategies, right?
1. Some of the early buyers get the $00 for three years offer.
2. Current owners were told they could get three years for $2,100 when it's time to renew.
3. New owners only get the three years for $2,100 if they commit when the get the vehicle. If they wait, they have to pay $800 a year ($100 per year penalty for using the well-studied trial to see if they like the feature.)

(edited to correct the amount for item 1.)

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[generaltso]

1. Some of the early buyers get the $800 for three years offer.

$600

 

[jbooth]

If you ever drive a long trip, you should try it. It's not silly, it results in a much more relaxing drive. We recently used it on a 2,950 trip from Michigan to Florida, up to SC, and back to Michigan. It's great!

Glad it works for you.

It bongs for me to take over practically every time there is an entry/exit ramp because it can't handle the dashed (or absent) right white line. That's every couple minutes, maximum about 5 minutes.

Don't even get me started about "SPEED LIMIT 70" then two seconds later "TRUCKS 60" (or "BUSSES 65") -- guess what speed I'm going? Yep, that'd be 60 (or 65). Until it sees the next 70, floors it, and then hits the regen 5 seconds later with the next "TRUCKS 60". You can claim IL shouldn't do this, but it has been that way for decades, this isn't new signage.

And heaven forbid while in a 65 or 55 construction zone, the construction crew failed to cover the "MINIMUM 45" sign. This is not a theoretical concern; I've had it happen multiple times. Once I can only assume it saw the frontage road speed limit sign, because there was no interstate sign or construction but that was exciting in a bad way.

Go drive around Chicagoland on the interstates and tell me its worth 800 a year, or even 75 a month. It isn't, not for what it can do right now.

Notes: '21 Job 1, no BC 1.3 yet.

 

[TheSeg]

I have no actual knowledge; This is pure speculation: The high cost for BC in my mind is paying for Ford's liability insurance premiums for the technology. There is certainly an ongoing cost to maintain the datasets, so I don't expect zero cost. But I would be shocked if that price point was purely margins.

That said, I'm still not really $75-66/month sold on BC. I use it on my once-a-quarter road trips, but it just doesn't hit that level for me, even for opting in for a single month.

Just look at Apples recycling of the iphone6's to 'Iphone SE'. We could have a Fiesta SE EV. Or we could have a whole lot of crap that needs recycled as people ditch faulty machines.

Part of the plan of Apple's device recycling is having high-end (sometimes brand new technology) components with the release of the product. This enables active support the device with new iOS releases for at least 6 years. iPhones have a longer lifecycle than Android phones till their eventual end-of-life reclamation.

The auto world isn't there with that perspective. Computing components for cars tend to be the cheapest enough to ship the car with features in order to have lower parts cost. Support is only to three years, and even then updating was a novelty. This is partly why the supply shortage of 2020-2022 occurred; manufacturing older components is more expensive than newer components.

Now that there's a financial incentive to offer services, shipping a new car with bargain computing components will prevent future revenue streams. We may end up seeing an overall improvement, especially with the functionality not gated by subscription.

 

[BostonPete]

I guess I picked the perfection Options Plan for my Mach-E. I went with the 3 Yr options... So the day I turn it back in will be the day my subscription ends. I was planning on keeping it but with this BS there is no way. I know this is the way companies are going these days, they want to monetize everything freaking thing possible. Would I pay something for BC Sure I would, would I pay $800 a year? Absolutely not and can not believe that Ford thinks anyone will. I sure hope they reconsider but they probably won't.

To be clear I love BC and I use it all the time!

 

[Billyk24]

If you are the new second owner of a 21 or 22 Mach-E, then is Blue Cruise is $2100 or is it a discount $600 for three years?

 

[Mike G]

Comma.ai is looking for Mach-E testers...

When my BC subscription runs out on my car and truck I think this is where I'm going. It will be fully baked by that time.

 

[Mike G]

If you are the new second owner of a 21 or 22 Mach-E, then is Blue Cruise is $2100 or is it a discount $600 for three years?

The clock started the day the first owner took delivery (if a '21 Job 2 or '22). You should have the remaining balance of whatever time that is. The Job 1 '21 I just traded will expire on the 31st of Dec this year because that's how long the "free trial" was for '21 MY owners who got BC activated in '22 (it was supposed to expire last Dec but they extended it). Pretty sure the BC subscription stays with the VIN.

 

[azerik]

If you are the new second owner of a 21 or 22 Mach-E, then is Blue Cruise is $2100 or is it a discount $600 for three years?

It actually doesn't say. But it SHOULD be $600/3yr but because they extended the trial to the end of the year, no one is in the position to renew.

 

[RickMachE]

Glad it works for you.

It bongs for me to take over practically every time there is an entry/exit ramp because it can't handle the dashed (or absent) right white line. That's every couple minutes, maximum about 5 minutes.

Don't even get me started about "SPEED LIMIT 70" then two seconds later "TRUCKS 60" (or "BUSSES 65") -- guess what speed I'm going? Yep, that'd be 60 (or 65). Until it sees the next 70, floors it, and then hits the regen 5 seconds later with the next "TRUCKS 60". You can claim IL shouldn't do this, but it has been that way for decades, this isn't new signage.

And heaven forbid while in a 65 or 55 construction zone, the construction crew failed to cover the "MINIMUM 45" sign. This is not a theoretical concern; I've had it happen multiple times. Once I can only assume it saw the frontage road speed limit sign, because there was no interstate sign or construction but that was exciting in a bad way.

Go drive around Chicagoland on the interstates and tell me its worth 800 a year, or even 75 a month. It isn't, not for what it can do right now.

Notes: '21 Job 1, no BC 1.3 yet.

Turn off sign recognition...

 

[Deleted member 16048]

Paid $600 for 3 years on both Mach-E and Lightning in purchase price. $800 a year is too much. $75 a month will be what we take, if anything, and only for a long trip.

Agree'd. I just hope it's one of those subscriptions that you can activate and deactivate as needed. Id only then use it when going on trips. Given it activates right away after purchase and not have to wait a week for it to enable.

 

[VaporTrails]

Subscription software has high margin after a certain period of time; they should look at keeping this price very low as a differentiator.

All car companies will be trying to nickel and dime their customers with "add-ons" - it's too lucrative, but people are going to pushback (see BMW.)

Ford would gain some PR points by keeping the price low and accessible, or bundling their other subscription services with it at a deeper discount. No pun intended, but they need to stay in their lane and not try to be a luxury manufacturer and keep things affordable for the average driver.

They have a chance to set the tone in the market while they figure out how to be more efficient on the manufacturing side. Horse is out of the barn, but in 6 months, they could make a big deal of a price drop and gain some eyeballs.

I think you are on to something here. What is the price point where consumers say “close enough, the year is a good enough deal” and bank the subscription for years on end because they want the feature available. Ford is making bank that whole time. I don’t think $10/mo is realistic. You have to pay developers, UX teams, and comp sci geeks to make this work well. I think $800/yr is well above the threshold where people will let it ride. Ford has smart people, we will see.

I have dealt with vendors who sold updated hardware with the subscription because they don’t want to deal with the numerous hardware versions. I think that idea could potentially be applied here.

Final anecdote. On a recent road trip, I had CarPlay with vehicle-automation range calculations enabled. About 10 hours behind BC 1.2 with very few episodes where I would have made a different choice. P&C was seamless at EA stations I stopped at. I felt like I was getting the GT-PE that I paid for.

 

[generaltso]

If you are the new second owner of a 21 or 22 Mach-E, then is Blue Cruise is $2100 or is it a discount $600 for three years?

The grandfathered renewal pricing is only for 2021 Job 1 cars.

 

[4sallypat]

Love my '23 MME with BC 1.2.

Drives without the ping ponging effect at high speeds.

Have 34 months remaining - will see if it's worth renewing then...

 

[MONDO]

I’m curious, has anyone on this forum with a recently ordered ’23 paid the $2100 for BlueCruise subscription?

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