Dear Ford, you've lost your mind

[neririn]

I'm awaiting 1.3 on the Lightning. I've got it on the MachE, and it works well. But that trial expires this month. How long until I see it on the truck? LOL

It will come on the lightning 1 month before expiration of the trial I'd expect just long enough to try to hook some suckers
. Sounds like I can expect 1.3 on my Mach-E shortly. Still nothing...

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[RickLightning]

Correct. My model year 21 Mach-E had the same trial which expires this year, despite BlueCruise not coming to my Mach-E until spring of 2022. Unfortunately Ford wasn't able to produce a usable product for a reasonable price in that 3 years. I am not holding my breath that they will by 2025 either.

You need to go back and read more carefully.

First, you have never paid for BC. Your car didn't come with it. You got it added later, for free, and Ford extended your free trial to 12/31/23. Now, they are offering you an option to extend for 3 years for $200 a year or pay $80 a month and take it whenever you do a trip.

Most people will be offered $800 a year, not $200.

One of the hardest things a company has is communicating to customers, sometimes made harder by the customers.

Go back and reread, I think you will find I am correct, as the Mach-E forum has several threads on this already.

 

[Whammy Bar]

For anyone wanting to disable the "Activation Prompts"

50°?? Gross. No. Thank. You.

 

[TaxmanHog]

50°?? Gross. No. Thank. You.

It was a mild 58 earlier, if I didn't have some chores to do with the truck, I wanted to take the Harley!!!

 

[davehu]

I've got a lariat and getting 3 years worth. I wish I could give you my remaining 33 months because I will never use it!

 

[vandy1981]

I find that posts containing ALL CAPS should generally be ignored.

Trust me, Blue Cruise is miles ahead of the Rivian equivalent (Driver +) but probably not worth what they're asking for it.

 

[luebri]

If it’s monthly $5 I would pay. $10 would be a maybe. $80…. lol.

I have my 2 of 3 years left, will enjoy. I don’t road trip much.

I’d be more inclined if they charged by usage, which would also motivate more road mapping. Something like $0.10 cents a mile with blue cruise engaged ??

So 500 miles of blue cruise hands free in a month you get dinged $50.

 

[Whammy Bar]

It was a mild 58 earlier, if I didn't have some chores to do with the truck, I wanted to take the Harley!!!

Put some bags on that thing. Or strap a milk crate to the chick seat.

 

[luebri]

It was a mild 58 earlier, if I didn't have some chores to do with the truck, I wanted to take the Harley!!!

58 in December?!??! You should moderate yourself from any more cold weather related topics on this forum. You apparently don’t do winter winter!

 

[Jseis]

Our ‘23 LT Lariat was packaged w/3 years of BT. I’d have happily given it up as living 80 miles from any interstates (but not any I’d want to use BC on!) and unavailable on our 2 lane rural highways. They too narrow and winding anyways.

I did try it on I-90 headed east to Montana. Worked fine though not for me. The way I drive with my eyes constantly scanning the horizon, mirrors, and well left and right apparently does not jive with the software’s idea of “eyes on the road”.

 

[intensifi]

My ‘23 Mach E sticker lists blue cruise and no where does it show a time period. Thinking I’ll have my lawyer send a nice letter when the time comes.

 

[Nick503955]

Any chance comma.ai can work with a Lightning and give something closer to FSD?

 

[Labs4Lightning]

Amen.
I recall this trend started several years ago with several premium manufacturers (BMW or Lexus or MercedesIIRC). They wanted a subscription service fora platitude of features- from cruise control to heated seats, and everything in between.
At the time, I remember praying that the US auto market would stand tall and scoff. But it seems the actuaries at Ford have feel otherwise. Hold the line- if this damn bursts there’s no plugging it.

This by no means is limited to the auto industry,, they are actually late to the subscription game. No cars in America have a subscription for heated seats.(yet)

also when lightning was released didn’t they mention blue cruise would be available for $300/yr rather than the current $795??

 

[Snakebitten]

The 2021 ICE F150'rs are currently receiving renewal offer for 3 years $600

It's a fair price, in my opinion, IF it were polished up over the original 3 year subscription. But the progress to improve the product has never materialized.

The early excitement that Bluecruise created on its release has been a wasted opportunity by Ford.

 

[neririn]

You need to go back and read more carefully.

First, you have never paid for BC. Your car didn't come with it. You got it added later, for free, and Ford extended your free trial to 12/31/23. Now, they are offering you an option to extend for 3 years for $200 a year or pay $80 a month and take it whenever you do a trip.

Most people will be offered $800 a year, not $200.

One of the hardest things a company has is communicating to customers, sometimes made harder by the customers.

Go back and reread, I think you will find I am correct, as the Mach-E forum has several threads on this already.

You are kind of right, but not to the point of me being completely illiterate.

I bought the advanced technology package so THAT the Mach-E would have BlueCruise which they were still developing. Back in mid 2020 when I actually ordered the car, that was what you did. You bought the technology package (or the California edition that included it) and that gave you the hardware (cameras etc) and BlueCruise was going to be once you had it, you kept it. No subscription, you pay the extra 3k for the necessary hardware up front, and it was just like an extended battery, AWD, or chrome wheels. Once you bought it, BlueCruise and the support for it was yours for the life of the car.

Fast forward to August of 2021 when the car finally arrived, (covid, then variants, then supply chain blah blah blah) BlueCruise was not yet out for the Mach-E, but we were assured by Ford and the dealer that we had already paid for it and it would come in OTA update. When it finally arrived in 2022, it arrived as a trial and it was like you said. Ford benevolently extended the free trial until the end of 2023. I was naive. In buying 15 plus Ford vehicles over the decades I had not been lied to by that dealer before. Maybe EV was new to him, I guess I will never know if he figured it out. I haven't since, and wont ever be back.

Bottom line, I didn't get it in writing. I wont make that mistake again though. As evidenced in the Mach-E forums, people are not interested in subscriptions, particularly when many feel they were sold a feature not a subscription. This will bite Ford. Generationally loyal customers like me are less loyal now. If they don't care about that, they really should. An existing customer is far easier to keep than finding a new one.

On the Mach-E, it was never sold to us as a subscription that was in need of any trial. We paid extra for the hardware. Hardware that was ONLY needed for BlueCruise, and that upfront purchase was to include any future software the hardware required to provide self driving. It was supposed to be a permanent feature. Were we lied to? Yeah, probably. I mean they are car salesmen after all, and that stereotype exists for a real reason. In hindsight had I known the fiasco BlueCruise would become, I would have saved the 3k on the order and skipped the hardware entirely.

By the time my Lightning arrived in June of 2022, the Lariat model I bought included everything necessary for BlueCruise, so there was nothing to strip off. They had officially moved to the subscription plan messaging with three years included at purchase. I haven't looked but they likely ship nearly every Lighning model BlueCruise capable as an included perk hoping to dupe people into the subscription nonsense after 3 years. Wall Street does love annual recurring revenue after all.

This whole post and all that I've said not withstanding, I don't care terribly much about the BlueCruise on the truck. I like to drive by myself and I didn't specifically select a package to allow it. It was a novelty on the truck, but an expectation on the Mach-E. A broken promise with a $80 per month reminder that I was lied to. Fool me once...

Now that said, If they try to turn around and start charging me a subscription for the home backup power integration, that's when it is time to lawyer up. Because I DID get that in writing. I have FAR too much money invested with them in otherwise useless hardware for them to change the home integration game now.

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