Bluecruise Update: Ford OTA team promises 1.3 for all Lightnings by end of the year

[Lytning]

The 2023 Monroney sticker did show Blue Cruise for 3 years.

My window sticker shows just "BlueCruise" with no duration limit.

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[MrH42]

I do it every day. Back out of the driveway, turn FSD on and it drives me 4 miles to my work thorough inner city neighborhoods, stop signs, stop lights, left/right turns… the entire way to my work parking lot. I literally touch nothing. It goes around trash cans, waits for cross traffic if cars are double parked, goes through if it’s clear to do so, slows down for speed bumps. It can still make mistakes and you have to watch out for it (one way during school hrs temp signs) but I’m sure that stuff is coming. It’s currently around 50% one take over and 50% no takeovers. Last year it could barely make it a few block before it took a speed bump at 25mph or changed lanes and cut someone off.

"I literally touch nothing! My car drives itself...except it violates school zone speed limits and requires me to abruptly take control half the time or else it would crash into something"

You're absolutely delusional and a danger to everyone else on the road.

If it requires an intervention 50% of the time on a 4 mile stretch, that's a disengagement every 8 miles. You know people drive about 15,000 miles/yr in this country, and go decades without an at-fault accident?

It's not autonomously driving until you don't have to supervise and they take liability for accidents. It requires disengagement rates that are at least 20,000x better.

This is just a fraudulent, over promised ADS system. It trades safety for novelty, to make for a cool party trick.

 

[Shawnson]

So, 1.2 ,1.3,1.4 are all marketing speak and fuzzy subjective language. ( 1.4: I hope it delivers in-land stability and won't drive me into the ocean)

But that’s how I wash my Truck!!! A quick BC dip into the salty water and out daily is a great clean!

 

[rdr854]

I'm one of the 2022 Lariat 511A's that it did not show, but I do have it.

The Functional section lists parts of the Blue Cruise system, but no mention of the time limited trial.

Exactly.

Just for yuks and giggles (and to the surprise of my wife), I actually used the Blue Cruise last weekend for about a mile on I-95. As long as I have what is listed on the Monroney sticker for the life of the truck, I am happy!

 

[swajames]

Look at your FORD.COM connected service detail page below https://www.ford.com/myaccount/

Oh I do get that, mine also shows a similar expiry date to yours. The point is that it wasn't sold to me as a time limited trial. It just says I have Bluecruise as standard, and a reasonable expectation that Ford must keep it working. Later window stickers made it clear that BlueCruise was time limited, ours didn't. At some point it's a legitimate point to take up with Ford.

 

[ChrisCon]

Lane change assist works by just tapping the turn signal stalk. Are you saying it doesn't work unless you fully engage the turn signal?

Im saying that t doesn't turn the blinker off after it makes the lane change..

 

[RickLightning]

I spoke to the OTA team at Ford on 8/24 and they let me know that the plan is to have all Lightnings updated to 1.3 bluecruise by the end of the year. Lots of promises!

That's worth, well, nothing. The CEO promised it LAST SUMMER. It came THIS SUMMER to Mach-Es. Close, but no cigar... Almost only counts in horseshoes and grenades.

This may be fertile ground for a class-action lawsuit. @Ford Motor Company advertised 3 years of "free" BlueCruise to market and sell the Lightning to us. For all practical purposes, Ford has failed to deliver. I have tried BlueCruise many times on prequalified sections of divided highways. I gave up out of concern a State Trooper would cite me for bouncing off the lane lines. I call it CruiseBlues.

Equitable action by @Ford Motor Company would be to provide 3 years of free BlueCruise, beginning when Ford successfully installs a safe, functional system in our vehicles.

Garbage. I drove 5,300 miles this winter with it and it worked fine. Little quirks, like sign recognition was so bad I had to turn it off (whereas the Mach-E is much better). Both had 1.0 at the time. Mach-E now has 1.3.

 

[rdr854]

My window sticker shows just "BlueCruise" with no duration limit.

I have an early 22 Lightning. The Ford website for my truck shows a 3-year trial for Blue Cruise, connected navigation and Alexa. Makes me wonder whether or not we will loose all of our telematics safety systems once the trucks are three years old. If so, should have been disclosed on the Monroney sticker and not buried on the Ford web page fir your truck that most people will never go to.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I have an early 22 Lightning. The Ford website for my truck shows a 3-year trial for Blue Cruise, connected navigation and Alexa.

Back in the hey-day of monitoring production of the 22's I noticed variations in the line items for various trims, be it Pro, XLT (3 flavors), Lariat and even Platinums, I'm guessing it has something to do with how the data was transferred from the online order making process and converted to WEBDO production, all trucks at particular trims with default included packages may or may not have a listing for certain features though they were included, exception being some orders lost features when shortages popped up at the last minute.

 

[Whitewater64]

If @Ford Motor Company delays 6 more months past the end of this year, my "free" 3 years of BlueCruise will have expired. But ... that was likely the plan all along.

This is what I've been thinking too. I don't keep up as much as some of you do, but when they brought the new director over from Apple(?) who was hired to monetize everything in the software realm, I made the prediction right then (in my head at least) that we would see the latest update of BlueCruise right about the time that all of us ran out of our free two years' guidance. I hate to be cynical, and I know Ford needs to recoup their costs for these GLORIOUS trucks (and I'm serious - I LOVE mine) we drive. But it was my prediction. If they do meet the year end goal, I'll have about 6 months to hopefully fall in love with BC 1.3 before they want me to shell out $800/year.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Moved TESLA charging tangent to its own thread

 

[Newton]

The automakers are really envious of the Netflix model, but they really don’t understand it. To make a subscription worthwhile you need to have engagement, which I guess for Bluecruise would mean new features every week. Ford’s current model relative to Netflix is that you can pay yearly for a service that lets you watch any movie from 2019 that you want to.

 

[Newton]

I don’t have Blue Cruise (Lariat SR) but my Kia has a highway driving assist, and I can’t really imagine paying for it. It only works on Interstate-5, and that is the least useful possible case for me. If I’m driving from Canada to California on I-5 I’m driving chill and “in the zone” with few decisions to make. I enjoy the lane keeping assist, speed sign recognition, and radar cruise control but since I’m just following traffic there is not much point to a system that turns the wheel for me while I have to try to stay alert for situations that it can’t handle. It would be different if I could close my eyes and go to sleep ,but I doubt we get to that level in my lifetime.

Something that would automatically navigate the traffic to a store in Bellingham or Portland with minimal intervention would be useful, especially if it avoided left turns and congested areas. I don’t think the truck has the hardware to do that to any useful degree, at least yet.

 

[rdr854]

I was just on the connected services web page, and if I read it correctly. for those with the 90-day trial, the annual cost is supposed to be $80 per year. The cost has not yet been announced for those of us with the 3-year subscription. Not sure where the $800 annual cost came from.

I will say this, GM and other manufacturers have long charged for subscriptions for connected telematics services such as On Star. If Ford charges $80 per year for its connected services suite, then that is a bargain compared to what GM was charging for On Star back in the day. Food for thought.

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