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

[swajames]

Well, the window sticker on my 2022 simply says that the truck has "BLUECRUISE".

There's no mention of any time-limited subscription anywhere on the window sticker.

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[The Weatherman]

Mine was the same answer. I actually was pretty upset (and told them the same) that for what I paid I expect to be able to use ALL the features of my truck without being nickle and dimes for it. I think the survey was focused on phone as a key but regardless I think that's crap and won't be adding it after the 3 year "trial" is up unless it becomes much much better than it is today.

It was nickel and dime at $200. It’s highway robber at $800.

 

[Gaalpwrd]

Straight from the horses mouth…

This is Ford trying to recover some of that $2 billion or so they've burned getting into EVs, and what they're likely to find is customers already paying for a premium product are simply not going to pay more just because... BlueCruise better be borderline L5 autonomous if they expect me to lay $800/year for that. Hell, I've been annoyed laying $8/month for satellite radio.

 

[swngdncr]

Actually, this is really upsetting to me. I won’t pay $800/yr, and I think it is grossly unethical for them to hike the cost that much. Frankly, I probably would not have bought the truck if I knew that there would be an $800/yr cost to use one of the key features. The Lightning may not be long in our driveway if Ford doesn’t walk this back.

 

[Zprime29]

I find it amusing how Ford was bragging about all the first time Ford buyers (myself included) due to the popularity of the truck. Then they pissed off 75% by not offering the Pro model in quantity, another 10% by jacking up prices numerous times, and of the remaining people that purchased...they've now alienated the vast majority. This is not how you earn repeat customers. I had been planning on keeping the lightning 10+ years. But if Ford continues down this road and other manufacturers enable V2H capabilities then I'll be looking to abandon ship.

 

[Amps]

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

If that $700/yr came with specific warranties on the hardware and guaranteed hardware upgrades then your analogy would make more sense.

The current announcement is for Mach E vehicles, not Lightnings. Are they going to do something similar to Lightning? Probably, but we don't know. All current Lightning BCHF hardware is announced by Ford to be capable of being upgraded to BCHF 1.2, just like current shipping Mach E hardware.

The analogy is to what Ford has currently announced for Mach E. They are 'giving the hardware away' going forward. It comes built into all Mach E trim levels. You want to use it? You have to pay the same price to get the software unlocked that Lightning owners paid to have the optional hardware installed with three years of 'free' service. Mach Es now do not have the free three years, they get 90 days to try it.

The people who are left out are the Mach E and Lightning owners who didn't opt to have the hardware installed when the hardware was optional. Now, all Mach Es get the hardware, you have to pay the $2100-$2400 to activate the software.

 

[Jim Lewis]

@Ford Motor Company. The thing that's wrong about the $800/year subscription price is that it doesn't take into account MILES DRIVEN.

I'm a 77-year-old retiree. One of the reasons I got the Lightning was I wanted an EV truck for hauling stuff with safety features that would help keep me from making mistakes behind the wheel as I aged further.

But as a senior, I only drive about 3,500 miles per year and only about 1,500 miles a year on restricted access roads where Blue Cruise is workable.

Why charge the same subscription fee to someone who drives 20,000 miles a year on Interstates vs. someone who drives only 1,500 miles a year on Interstates?

The subscription fee should be based in good part on miles driven using Blue Cruise.

I'm not going to pay $800/year to drive 1,500 miles per year with Blue Cruise, and at that subscription rate, if we decided to sell our remaining ICE vehicle and get an EV sedan or SUV, it's going to be something other than a Ford. Ford must be in pretty dire financial straits to contemplate charging such an over-the-top subscription fee for a product that's level 2. $800 per year for a vehicle driving service, by its own admission, that is not good at recognizing motorcyclists and pedestrians and requires full driver attention at all times?! Make it a less expensive by-the-mile-used service.

 

[tcfila]

It’s not worth $75 per year, let alone per month.

 

[ChrisC]

Well, the window sticker on my 2022 simply says that the truck has "BLUECRUISE".

There's no mention of any time-limited subscription anywhere on the window sticker.

How is the active motion in the seats? I really wanted those but they discontinued it

 

[Jim Lewis]

The other thing that seems crazy about the price increase is that one might naively think that with more and more vehicles on the road using Ford Blue Cruise, the more "self-mapping" of roads there would be. If Ford had hundreds of thousands of vehicles on the road sending it sensor data, as the sensing system improved and one used AI on "big data," one would think that in-use mapping could supplant "pre-mapping" more and more and perhaps drive the cost of maintaining the system down.

But maybe the sensor systems used in pre-mapping are far more sophisticated and collect and transmit far more road data to Ford than the in-use Blue Cruise system does ....

 

[swajames]

How is the active motion in the seats? I really wanted those but they discontinued it

At the risk of adding to your disappointment, they actually did a nice job with them, they work really well. There's a lot of different modes/options and they are pretty effective. It takes a little extra menu navigation to to get to the seat massage controls, but they are really good and I'm glad I was able to get mine before they took them out of the builds.

 

[BloodyBulwark]

This news is devastating. I really REALLY wanted BlueCruise to help me reduce driving fatigue since I travel to work. I even spec'd up into the Lariat so I could best utilize this feature. If I knew this was coming down the pipe, I would have forgone the upgrade and just stayed with the XLT... These trucks are not going to hold resale value at all!!

 

[Lightning Rod]

It will be interesting to see if in a week they come out saying "sorry, we've adjusted it down after feedback".

I won't be paying either way.

I was hoping that they would say that they made a mistake and accidentally added a zero to 80 dollars per year.

$800? They can keep BC at that price.

 

[Jim Lewis]

Perhaps they should adopt one of the Garmin mapping plans (it's been a while since I've bought Garmin maps). But back in the day, Garmin didn't make you pay for the whole U.S. You could pay only for what you needed, down to the state level and, IIRC, even regional levels within a state. One might say in the less populated areas of the U.S., there would be fewer users and less support of the system, but, IIRC, F-150 ownership is higher in rural areas, and there are fewer roads to map and to use Blue Cruise with in rural areas. So maybe, a pay-for-what-you-need and pay-according-to-miles-driven would all work out in the end. Rather than having an inefficient bureaucracy that charges everyone for all the stuff they're never going to drive and prices itself out of existence.

Garmin maps did not force you to update, either. You could still use your out-of-date maps at your own risk. Every time you'd boot your device, you'd get a warning that the maps were out of date but you could proceed if you wanted. If you realize not much has changed in the areas that you're driving, why pay for an update until you feel you really need it, especially when you're driving only a level 2 system where you have to always apply your own judgment on top of the system? Let users keep using the maps that come with the vehicle when they buy it. I'm perhaps erroneously assuming while your subscription is active, the maps you use are downloaded into the vehicle.

 

[jerock]

I planned on keeping my Lightning for the long haul & almost cancelled my $100 deposit for the Silverado. I will certainly be looking at it more closely if this price for BC is maintained.
My hope is this is not the trend for assisted driving. I believe GM is still maintaining the $25 per month on their version.
If this is the future what Ford is doing, very few will pay that amount.

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