Paying for BlueCruise

[2021 Mach-e Owner]

I did come across a survey elsewhere on this forum indicating that 79 percent of folks would refuse to pay for Blue Cruise. I would be one of the vast majority. To put it in perspective, below is the essence of an email I sent to Ford's chairman in reply to the "special deal" offered to charge a boatload instead of a barge-load of money to use the evolving/improved features of an automobile I already purchased and paid for:

James Farley, Jr.

I think it outrageous that Ford would charge additional money to use features that it has built into its automobiles. A subscription to drive your car? Really? What are you thinking? I suppose next I will find a sensor in my blue jeans that charges me when I put my wallet in the pocket despite the fact that I already purchased and paid for the jeans at the local clothing store. Again, What are you thinking? This is so plainly not an appropriate means of generating a revenue stream. I paid for the car. I actually like it. The notion that I should now pay to use its improving features (updates are part of what I bargained for)is preposterous.

Heed this, as I suspect legislation or a class action lawsuit will upend this notion of charging to use a car after having purchased it already. Consumers will not allow this (mis)conduct to be normalized.

Mach-e Owner

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[leeman]

I wish I could find my way to pay for something like this but the blue Cruise navigation and other things aren't appealing enough and useful enough to be a subscription service of course I grew up in a time when you drove a car you really drove a car it didn't drive you I don't believe people should be in cars unless they want to drive ca I don't think cars should ever drive you and I think blue Cruise although a nice idea in a lot of places that makes no sense because there's just too much traffic

 

[flapjake314]

paying for a software service that is being kept update to date, maintained, refreshed, with new features etc is completely reasonable

however i am a 2021 owner; the above sentence does not apply to my car which is why i refuse to pay for it

 

[phil]

Heed this, as I suspect legislation or a class action lawsuit...

Did he heed you?

 

[Vulnox]

paying for a software service that is being kept update to date, maintained, refreshed, with new features etc is completely reasonable

however i am a 2021 owner; the above sentence does not apply to my car which is why i refuse to pay for it

Exactly, calling something like BlueCruise a built-in feature shows a misunderstanding of how it works.

Charging for stuff like heated seats or adaptive cruise w/ lane centering, that should not happen on a subscription basis. But BlueCruise, like your cellular plan or netflix subscription, is paying for the work behind the scenes to keep maps up to date and ongoing development/improvements to the accuracy of the system. Just like for your cellular plan you're paying for the maintenance of towers and the personnel that manage the network and those towers.

But, I don't pay for Netflix any longer either. The cost they demand isn't equivalent to the value I place on their content. While I fully support them in charging something for the content that costs them money to make, it is on me to determine if the cost they want is a value to me.

For BlueCruise the cost to Ford to maintain it is there, and it's on Ford to then make it a price that is appealing to me and others. They are closer, but I don't think there yet for most. They also haven't proven to many on here like flapjake that they can be trusted to deliver consistent and timely updates for that charge, which is only hurting their prospects of expanding their subscription business in the future.

Again using Netflix as an example, even when they have series I am interested in, they have an almost comical reputation for canceling a series after one or maybe two seasons. So to many they don't trust Netflix to make their investment of time and money pay off. Ford is quickly heading in that direction with their slow rollout of BC to 2021 vehicles, and even how long it took for 2022 and early 2023, and lack of communication to explain it.

 

[Sikkun]

First post and leading with the lawsuit threats.

Good luck.

 

[hbirring01]

The fact that they cant even deliver features they want to charge for should speak volumes about what type of company @Ford Motor Company is.

 

[Bruboy]

I did come across a survey elsewhere on this forum indicating that 79 percent of folks would refuse to pay for Blue Cruise. I would be one of the vast majority. To put it in perspective, below is the essence of an email I sent to Ford's chairman in reply to the "special deal" offered to charge a boatload instead of a barge-load of money to use the evolving/improved features of an automobile I already purchased and paid for:

James Farley, Jr.

I think it outrageous that Ford would charge additional money to use features that it has built into its automobiles. A subscription to drive your car? Really? What are you thinking? I suppose next I will find a sensor in my blue jeans that charges me when I put my wallet in the pocket despite the fact that I already purchased and paid for the jeans at the local clothing store. Again, What are you thinking? This is so plainly not an appropriate means of generating a revenue stream. I paid for the car. I actually like it. The notion that I should now pay to use its improving features (updates are part of what I bargained for)is preposterous.

Heed this, as I suspect legislation or a class action lawsuit will upend this notion of charging to use a car after having purchased it already. Consumers will not allow this (mis)conduct to be normalized.

Mach-e Owner

So what if pockets were an option?

 

[byoungblood]

paying for a software service that is being kept update to date, maintained, refreshed, with new features etc is completely reasonable

however i am a 2021 owner; the above sentence does not apply to my car which is why i refuse to pay for it

But, we should not have to pay to continue to use what is arguably already paid for in the vehicle.

I could *possibly* see paying some much ($5/mo) for bug fixes, etc., if you don't care anything about getting feature updates. But $50-75 to use what you have is absurd.

 

[Vulnox]

But, we should not have to pay to continue to use what is arguably already paid for in the vehicle.

I could *possibly* see paying some much ($5/mo) for bug fixes, etc., if you don't care anything about getting feature updates. But $50-75 to use what you have is absurd.

What do you mean by "use what you have"? What do you have that you lose? You can still do hands-on lane centering, you just lose hands-free. You can't keep using hands-free "what you have" for a service that relies on mapped highways. Highways change and while the mapping won't cause you to drive off the road or anything as it doesn't use them in that way, if there are lane shifts or other issues then the system would stop working without accurate mapping.

You are paying for the maintenance of that mapping, and without it they don't allow hands-free.

So it doesn't make sense to say "use what you have" when you're talking about a live service from the start. Ford never advertised BC as something that didn't rely on live mapping, they have done so from the beginning.

If you lose BC you can still use hands-on lane centering and adaptive cruise control, which some people incorrectly call BlueCruise. So let's be sure we are clear on that and you aren't losing that functionality that doesn't rely on mapping.

 

[Sikkun]

They are going to be providing a one time purchase option for 24 and 25’s. So at least we can get less lawsuit threads one day.

Just more threads on how the option cost too much.

 

[flapjake314]

They are going to be providing a one time purchase option for 24 and 25’s. So at least we can get less lawsuit threads one day.

Just more threads on how the option cost too much.

to be honest, you don't REALLY want to pay someone one-time upfront for something they need to service forever. because fun fact, they'll eventually tell you to fly a kite. both sides end up unhappy

 

[Sikkun]

to be honest, you don't REALLY want to pay someone one-time upfront for something they need to service forever. because fun fact, they'll eventually tell you to fly a kite. both sides end up unhappy

Standard car user isn’t really needing service forever. More like 10 years.

Not that I think the map data is doing much more than enabling hands free anyway…it’s not navigating by maps, that’s happening with all the sensors on the car.

 

[Space_Pony]

They are going to be providing a one time purchase option for 24 and 25’s. So at least we can get less lawsuit threads one day.

Just more threads on how the option cost too much.

Lifetime BC could be a selling point when you sell your car, I guess. I assume it stays with the car regardless of the owner.

 

[SonicBlue]

I did come across a survey elsewhere on this forum indicating that 79 percent of folks would refuse to pay for Blue Cruise. I would be one of the vast majority. To put it in perspective, below is the essence of an email I sent to Ford's chairman in reply to the "special deal" offered to charge a boatload instead of a barge-load of money to use the evolving/improved features of an automobile I already purchased and paid for:

James Farley, Jr.

I think it outrageous that Ford would charge additional money to use features that it has built into its automobiles. A subscription to drive your car? Really? What are you thinking? I suppose next I will find a sensor in my blue jeans that charges me when I put my wallet in the pocket despite the fact that I already purchased and paid for the jeans at the local clothing store. Again, What are you thinking? This is so plainly not an appropriate means of generating a revenue stream. I paid for the car. I actually like it. The notion that I should now pay to use its improving features (updates are part of what I bargained for)is preposterous.

Heed this, as I suspect legislation or a class action lawsuit will upend this notion of charging to use a car after having purchased it already. Consumers will not allow this (mis)conduct to be normalized.

Mach-e Owner

No offense intended, but this is dumb. You’re not paying to drive your car. You’re paying to use a cutting edge technology to drive it hands free. If you don’t want that, you can still drive your car like any other car.

Of course the price ford is asking is absurd. The market will handle that. They’ve already cut the price once and they’ll continue to do so until they reach a price point people are willing to pay.

And as 2021 owners, we have every right to be pissed that Ford seems incapable of keeping our BC up to date, especially for a subscription service.

Maybe Farley will heed that.

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