BlueCruise Pricing Lowered For Both Annual & Monthly Fees

[jamesphw]

I live in a region where we're not ever likely to have a BC-mapped road, so it's academic for me, but I have to say that after getting to use 1.3 for a week in Vancouver I'd happily pay if I used it every day. Getting chauffeured through congested traffic is absolutely less stressful.

Agree it's nice in heavy traffic.

In Ontario they are still missing large chunks of Highway 11, 115, 69, and 26... so basically the most common routes if you travel north from Toronto.

Between that and that fact that my highway driving is way more limited in the Fall/Winter, US$500 per year is still too expensive for me.

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[pgh.mache]

I will agree with everyone here saying that it's super nice to have on long road trips (with roads that aren't *too* twisty.

That said, every other company offers hands-free driving, and some (e.g. GM's Super Cruise) are far cheaper. Super Cruise is $25 per month, and there are plenty of people saying even *that* is too expensive. Hands-free highway driving is awesome, but it's a commodity, not a differentiator, and that needs to be factored in when pricing it; if your car doesn't have it, that's a negative, not a neutral.

 

[dbsb3233]

I find it makes long (and even shorter) drives much less stressful.

To me it's a Catch-22. If I let my guard down a whole bunch, it would be less stressful. But then I wouldn't be watching the road constantly, and on edge ready to step in at any split second when it screws up to keep from killing us (or the people in the car next to me) at 80 MPH. That's the part that makes it more stressful to me. I'm just not willing to allow myself to be that relaxed and that un-ready to react in a split-second. Even if the car is right 99.9% of the time.

Since I feel the need to watch constantly, I might as well just steer. Plus that way I make the little adjustments in the lane to miss the ruts, drift wide of trucks, etc.

It helps that I have the seat high and the wheel low so I can rest my arm in my lap and grab the bottom while cruising though. If I had to hold my arm up all the time, that would be more stressful (just physically rather than mentally).

I'm just not a fan of "half in" steering autonomy. When it gets to 100% where I can get into a shuttlepod with no steering wheel or driver seat, then great. But that's years away.

 

[lifebythemile]

FWIW I used BC in Vancouver for a week and found many more roads on hands-free than showing on the official maps.

Oh? I live in Langley and it would only ever activate on Hwy 1 (but would cut out and disable hands free frequently), Hwy 99 and 91. Heading east it would work on maybe 30% of Hwy 5 and about 25% of 97C.

 

[dbsb3233]

Still a NO.

They need to implement the Sirius/XM pricing model.

Every year, they try to raise my price to $24/mo. I try to cancel and they lower it to $6/mo.

I’ve been doing this rodeo with them yearly for 15 year now.

But they still have a subscriber!

Same here. Fortunately they're so used to the dance now too that they rarely push back. And I do it via chat now so I don't have to talk to someone. I just tell them I want my same $5.99 rate for another year and they extend me without the back-and-forth. (Probably because they see I'm a long-time subscriber.)

 

[sockmeister]

This! I'd pay about $10/mo or $100/year - tops. Just don't see the value in it - especially for us '21s that still have BC 1.0

Absolutely. It makes sense at a value of about $100/year to me. It's just not worth more than that.

 

[NewGuy]

As long as we’re all adding our thoughts…

I Iove handsfree BlueCruise and use it every chance I get. That said, I thought the original asking price of $600 for 3 years was wildly expensive and wouldn’t pay that. Thankfully my vehicle includes it for three years from new.

I also think that 1.3 is worse than 1.0, and frequently requires hands on for no apparent reason; often not allowing handsfree for entire multi-hour trips. That would need to be fixed before I would pay a dime.

 

[bbhaag]

To me it's a Catch-22. If I let my guard down a whole bunch, it would be less stressful. But then I wouldn't be watching the road constantly, and on edge ready to step in at any split second when it screws up to keep from killing us (or the people in the car next to me) at 80 MPH. That's the part that makes it more stressful to me. I'm just not willing to allow myself to be that relaxed and that un-ready to react in a split-second. Even if the car is right 99.9% of the time.

Since I feel the need to watch constantly, I might as well just steer. Plus that way I make the little adjustments in the lane to miss the ruts, drift wide of trucks, etc.

It helps that I have the seat high and the wheel low so I can rest my arm in my lap and grab the bottom while cruising though. If I had to hold my arm up all the time, that would be more stressful (just physically rather than mentally).

I'm just not a fan of "half in" steering autonomy. When it gets to 100% where I can get into a shuttlepod with no steering wheel or driver seat, then great. But that's years away.

I was this way at first but now that I've got over 4,000 miles of BC driving under my belt I've learned to relax and just let the car do it's thing. Especially in stop and go traffic. IMO that is where BC really shines and makes the drive less stressful.

Anyway, not sure yet if I renew my sub when my current one expires but I welcome lower pricing by Ford to help make pricing more in line with what competitors are offering.

 

[Mach-Lee]

Ford, you need to get it down to $25/mo or less (same as GM SuperCruise). That’s what people are willing to pay if you see all the comments.

 

[dbsb3233]

I was this way at first but now that I've got over 4,000 miles of BC driving under my belt I've learned to relax and just let the car do it's thing. Especially in stop and go traffic. IMO that is where BC really shines and makes the drive less stressful.

And that's surely the case for everyone that likes it. They've come to trust it so they can relax more and not be as ready to react in a split-second.

That's precisely what bothers me. I don't want to slow down my reaction time. There's no way to avoid it as it's just simple human nature. In fact it's really the whole point of self-steering -- allowing the driver to let down their guard and not pay as much attention, which means not being as quick to react. I totally get how some people like that so they don't have to pay as much attention, freeing them up to relax more or do other things (as much as the eye-tracker lets them get away with it). But I'm just not willing to. I'm just too old school about my driving attention level.

 

[Deleted member 19354]

Hi Mach-E Owners –

We wanted to let you know that if you have an annual or monthly BlueCruise subscription plan or are coming up on the end of your 90-day complimentary trial, Ford is lowering the annual and monthly pricing plan for all BlueCruise-equipped vehicles. Here are the details:

• New pricing will be $495 annually and $49.99 monthly.
• This new pricing goes into effect today, October 1, 2024.
• If you are a current BlueCruise customer, you will see the new price reflected on your next payment.
• If you have a BlueCruise-equipped vehicle, BlueCruise can be easily activated via the FordPass app under the Connected Services tile.

We are also pleased to share that if you have a BlueCruise-equipped vehicle you can now earn and redeem FordPass® Rewards Points toward a BlueCruise subscription. If you’d like to use your Points, simply go to the FordPass app under the Connected Services tile, and choose to redeem your Points for some or all of your BlueCruise subscription. You also now earn Points when you purchase BlueCruise!

We hope you continue to enjoy hands-free highway driving!

I am on a completely 72 moth offer. May I purchase this to protect my price for when it expires?

 

[moog]

Props to Ford for lowering the price. Seriously, a good move.

However, the price is still too high.
The price went from outrageous, to still too expensive.

$100.00 a year is the sweet spot.

Drop the price to $100 annually and the people will purchase it in droves.


Bet on it: With this current price drop, Ford will see very little movement on people re-upping for a yearly subscription.

Ford knew/realized their current price was off the rails, but they will soon find out that this price drop is not enough. Keep trying Ford, you will find the sweet spot eventually.

Hands free driving is not going to go away, but Ford has to find their market.
$500 is not where it is at.

I applaud Ford for trying.......try again.

 

[markw314]

I was this way at first but now that I've got over 4,000 miles of BC driving under my belt I've learned to relax and just let the car do it's thing. Especially in stop and go traffic. IMO that is where BC really shines and makes the drive less stressful.

See, I hate it in stop-and-go. I find it's very abrupt/jarring when it slows and accelerates with traffic.
But to each their own. I'm still early in year 2 of my 3 years, so plenty of time to decide. And hopefully, there will be a new release before June 2026 to help me with that decision ?

 

[bbhaag]

See, I hate it in stop-and-go. I find it's very abrupt/jarring when it slows and accelerates with traffic.
But to each their own. I'm still early in year 2 of my 3 years, so plenty of time to decide. And hopefully, there will be a new release before June 2026 to help me with that decision ?

Completely understandable. My wife travels with me a lot and she feels the same way in stop and go. When she is driving in that situation she also finds it abrupt/jarring and refuses to use it. On open interstate travel she loves it.

It's not perfect by any means but since I do the lions share of the driving especially around big cities because she does not care for that type of driving I've gotten more familiar with how it works and how it operates.

Anyway, after using it for so many miles I guess I'm just more use to it. IMO it is one of the best features of the car but this is getting off topic. I'm just happy to read that Ford decided to lower the price.

 

[awp0]

Sorry, this is still too expensive for me. Bring it back to the price that it was when I bought the car, or very close to that, and I'd consider it. $500 is still more than twice the price that was marketed to me, so this is still a ridiculous bait and switch IMHO.

Btw, I get that Ford needs money for "continued development" of BC. Unfortunately the only value that I'm enjoying from the BC 1.3 upgrade (literally the only BC upgrade in 2+ years) is that it finally works as advertised. It doesn't ping-pong and wander like it did for 2 years. And btw, I couldn't care less about automatic lane-changing. I actually find that feature quite awkward.

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