BlueCruise Subscription Price Increased to $800/yr for All Renewals

[SmoothJ]

With my current financial situation, paying $800 a year is a luxury that I can't afford. That may change though by 7/2025 when my current "trial" runs out. Regardless, for that price... I would like to see more added features, improvements, and possible system upgrades. As others have mentioned, it has issues on some corners, and some other road conditions.

Lets see how "Latitude AI" pays off in the long run...

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[vagabond7846]

Lane keep assist and adaptive cruise control is definitely table stakes and should not be gated behind a paywall. As someone else mentioned, leasing the top of the line iPhone is $70/mo. Paying $75/mo for bluecruise is very bad product management and highlights that Ford is still figuring out how to fund software development while not understanding their customers.

Maintaining software is not free, but this is an absurd price to pay for a very basic set of features, especially when the rest of the software ecosystem around Ford vehicles is poor (laggy screens, numerous errors in Ford Pass, no open API and hostile reactions to software developers). @Ford Motor Company you need to do better here or you will lose the generation of software developers that can actually help your product become better and more open.

 

[Storm Breaker]

hell nah...my blue cruise doesn't even work. driver facing camera fault. smh. im sick of taking my truck back to the dealer. feels like they've had it more than me.

 

[Zprime29]

$800 / year...hell no
$200 / year...maybe
$15 / month as needed...sign me up!

And what kind of BS is that 90 day trial period? You can't expect people to buy something if they don't get a chance to try it out. Why not make it 90 days of activation? Why does everything have to be time based in today's world? Just decrement the counter each new calendar day that HFBC is activated. Easy, clear, gives lots of time and opportunity to grow to like it and be more willing to pay for it. Ford...what the actual...*sigh*

 

[Alan168]

A hard NO for me - even with my chronic neck and back pain!

 

[detansinn]

People this accepting of unjustifiable usage fees will be the end of us. You'll be the whale that keeps responsible people from being able to pay reasonable prices for nice things, and then you'll expect to be bailed out when you're older and can't afford basic expenses.

This kind of model is only the future if enough people accept it. And BMW is a perfect example, after caving on their CarPlay subscription fee. Grow a spine and close your wallet when somebody is trying to take advantage of you.

BlueCruise is level 2, and requires full attention from the driver. It's a novelty that frees up literally none of your time. IMO it's not even worth $5/month. I could see maybe $20/month if it included hotspot service and full access to all the FordPass features too.

If it's not worth it to you, don't pay it. For me, it's worth it. I put over 4k miles on my F150 Lightning in the first month of ownership and much of that was Blue Cruise on the highway.

"you'll expect to be bailed out when you're older and can't afford basic expenses"
I am already old. I can count my remaining years on my fingers and toes. Being an older Gen Xer, literally nobody cares what I think.

The monthly payments for everything is very much a millennial and younger thing. If you really want to affect it, those are the consumers that have to stop feeding the beast. There's not enough Gen Xers to matter when it comes to this stuff.

This world is run by the boomers and millennials. As Gen Xers, we just sit back, watch them fight it out, and the world burn.

 

[Flashy McLightning]

Seems steep, but I could see them moving to more subscription services to keep price under tax credit thresholds.

 

[FirstF150InCasco]

I’m not so sure about that. Below is information from the FMCO order guide for the Lightning. Other than the Connected Nav, I see no evidence of a subscription either in the order guide or the monroney sticker.

FORD CO-PILOT360TM TECHNOLOGY ● Ford Co-Pilot360TM Assist 2.0
— IntelligentAdaptiveCruiseControl ○ Stop-and-Go
○ Lane Centering
○ SpeedSignRecognition
— EvasiveSteeringAssist
— Connected Built-In Navigation1,2
— Intersection Assist


The 1,2 reference footnotes for the connected built in Nav being 3 years. Am I to presume that you still have the maps but not the traffic congestion calculation (or what ever that is called).

The maps and the traffic congestion suck anyway. The road by my place in Maine was re-routed over 80 years ago and the map still shows the old route. So, I still use Waze via Apple Play.

 

[F150ROD]

Eventually the Hardware in the Lightning that runs Blues Clues will be obsolete…. Like maybe next year? Are they going to upgrade the Hardware also? Then maybe $800 would be worth it?

 

[daveross1212]

I use it, I love it, but 800$ is wayy too much.

 

[Kickaha]

I currently drive a 2016 Tesla Model X with Autopilot 1.0 which is "okay" meaning it only tries to kill me an average of 2 times per day and I test drove a Lightning with Blue Cruise 1.0 which was better than AP 1.0 (not saying good, just better).

However, I have ordered a Lightning on 3/30 but still dont have a production date. The big selling points for me are 1) truck, 2) 300mi+ range, and 3) Blue Cruise. The other vehicle on my radar is a Mercedes EQS SUV (my wife drives a GLS which is amazing comfortable and has lane-keeping assist which is probably 75-80% as good as AP and Blue Cruise).

I would pay a moderate amount per year for Blue Cruise because I think it will get better over time but I will NOT pay $800 per year. I could probably justify $20 per month or ~$150 per year.

The question I have to answer now is how important is a truck and 300+ mile range. The EQS SUV gets right at 300 but only at 100% SOC which the lightning "should" get near 300 at 90% due to the larger battery. If I take BC off the wish list, does Truck + 300mi range still beat out the ultracomfort of the EQS. If I pulled the trigger on emotions, I would dump the Lightning. I am trying to be a little more objective, but honestly, this PISSES ME OFF!!!

Its amazing to me the degree with which Ford shoots themselves in the foot, the leg, the ass, and other assorted body parts and then reloads to do it again and again!

This is just a big FU to their customers.

 

[Amps]

I would pay a moderate amount per year for Blue Cruise because I think it will get better over time but I will NOT pay $800 per year. I could probably justify $20 per month or ~$150 per year.

Everybody here who has Blue Cruise Hands-Free now already paid the equivalent of around $700 a year for the first three years of ownership with the promise of subscription fees after three years. It wasn't a secret.

For the Mach E, the hardware is now included 'free' with all trim levels and the subscription is $700/year for the first three years and $800/year ($67/month) or $75 monthly subscription. AFAIK, Ford hasn't announced what they intend to do with Lightnings. I hate subscription fees, too. And, I won't be renewing it. Maybe a month when I drive cross country, etc. I'd do the same thing with FSD in a Tesla.

It's strange how people are having trouble understanding they've already paid $700 a year for the BCHF they've got in their Lightning. As someone mentioned, this gets the hardware off the MSRP and may help with tax credit qualification.

 

[Charles DelToro]

I won't pay that price.

 

[vagabond7846]

It's strange how people are having trouble understanding they've already paid $700 a year for the BCHF they've got in their Lightning

Adding 'bluecruise' to a build costs $2200 which yes over 3 years is ~700/yr. But this adds/upgrades hardware to the vehicle.

Continuing to charge $700/yr for software upgrades and maintenance with no improvements or upgrades on the hardware is too expensive as evidence by nearly every comment in this thread. If that $700/yr came with specific warranties on the hardware and guaranteed hardware upgrades then your analogy would make more sense.

 

[ivan256]

It's strange how people are having trouble understanding they've already paid $700 a year for the BCHF they've got in their Lightning. As someone mentioned, this gets the hardware off the MSRP and may help with tax credit qualification.

This isn't true. I have BlueCruise and I haven't paid a single cent for it. I paid for the truck. It was worth the bottom line price to me and I paid it. The fact that some of the sticker price was attributed to BlueCruise was incidental. I would have been willing to pay the same if it hadn't been ordered with BlueCruise. (Though I would have rather paid less)

It also isn't true that it gets any of the hardware cost off the MSRP. The trucks are profitable at their MSRP and Ford isn't recognizing any potential revenue from 12 quarters out when they account for that.

It also doesn't help with tax credit qualification for the same reason as above.

Furthermore, the initial outlay for the feature includes all the associated hardware, and the re-subscription doesn't.

What is really going on here is somebody understands they can use this to help people do terrible math in 3 years to think it makes financial sense to trade their lightly used depreciated truck in for a fresh new full-price replacement.

I would bet the vast, vast majority of re-subscriptions are going to be rolled into the loan on certified pre-owned vehicles. Almost nobody is going to shell out for this subscription. Especially 3 years from now when the tech seems a little outdated rather than cool and new.

...the promise of subscription fees after three years. It wasn't a secret.

Nope. No secret. In fact I think it's a completely reasonable thing for them to charge a fee for, since they're providing a service that has costs. Though it is surprising how high the fee is. And the uproar seems to be how out of line the price is vs. the value provided. Not that there's a fee.

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