New BlueCruise e-mail from Ford

[PrimeRisk]

I haven't received any email but even at the "reduced" price it's still way too expensive for my blood especially given the extremely poor roll out of updates. Needs to be in the $50 - $100 per year ballpark with timely roll out of updates for me to even consider it. Until then I'll just get the wife or son to drive when I don't want to once my current as purchased subscription expires .

Yeah, if I use Tesla's FSD as a baseline at $99/month or $8k lifetime, BlueCruise is worth about $5/month for what it does. I *MIGHT* go $10, but would only subscribe for a single month if I was going on a long, mostly Interstate, trip.

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[hajalie24]

Someone once said on this forum they put a 1lb weight on the steering wheel so cruise control thinks your hands are on the wheel. I think I'm just going to do this when my trial expires. Hell I should do it now because blue cruise likes to disengage every few miles on curves, etc anyway. Why would I pay for that experience?

 

[COrocket]

Can someone explain to me why I’d pay anything for BlueCruise in its current 1.0 form? From my understanding the truck always has lane centering and TACC so it would literally be $500/yr so I don’t have to keep my hand on the wheel? That doesn’t seem like an incredible burden that’s worth the cost? I don’t get it.

Maybe 1.5 auto lane change will be available by the time my new vehicle subscription is up in a little over a year?

 

[Texas Dan]

Can someone explain to me why I’d pay anything for BlueCruise in its current 1.0 form? From my understanding the truck always has lane centering and TACC so it would literally be $500/yr so I don’t have to keep my hand on the wheel? That doesn’t seem like an incredible burden that’s worth the cost? I don’t get it.

Maybe 1.5 auto lane change will be available by the time my new vehicle subscription is up in a little over a year?

I use BC going to and coming from work everyday. It’s really nice to be able to drop my hands and let the truck fight with traffic. There’s something really relaxing about letting the truck do the driving.

I know I would miss BC if I didn’t have it so, if I can afford it, why not? A lot of times I have to pay pretty hefty charges my wife racks up that I don’t benefit from. At least paying for BC I would get something out of it.

I am a spend thrift and I will go for the better price if I can find it. But I have to say that if you can’t afford $50 per month for BC then you probably shouldn’t have bought a Lightning at a trim level that has BC on it.

 

[VTHokies]

with the prices they are charging for these trucks there should be no subscription fee! I've already paid for the hardware and we are stuck on 1.0 software wise... it's worked great for me driving from Dallas to Houston but I'll never pay for it out of principle!

 

[PrimeRisk]

I am a spend thrift and I will go for the better price if I can find it. But I have to say that if you can’t afford $50 per month for BC then you probably shouldn’t have bought a Lightning at a trim level that has BC on it.

I can afford it easily. But I also refuse to pay for garbage products as it only encourages them to continue doing what they are doing. There is one simple reason why Ford dropped the price and it sure is not out of the kindness of their heart.

They know their product is bad because they are not getting the subscriptions to make the R&D investment and ongoing development economically viable. They're hoping to squeeze more cash out of the rubes so they can try to make it better before someone in Dearborn pulls the plug completely.

Tick-Tock BlueCruise team...

 

[Texas Dan]

I can afford it easily. But I also refuse to pay for garbage products as it only encourages them to continue doing what they are doing.

So you’re not going to pay for BC out of principle? That’s pretty stupid. If you can afford it then either you don’t like BC and are not willing to pay for it or you like it and are willing to pay for it.

Of course BC needs improvement but what are you going to do? Pay for it and keep asking Ford to improve it or install an aftermarket system like Comma 3x. I’m not going to be touching BC as long as my truck’s in warranty but after I will be seriously looking at installing an aftermarket system if BC hasn’t improved.

 

[PrimeRisk]

So you’re not going to pay for BC out of principle? That’s pretty stupid. If you can afford it then either you don’t like BC and are not willing to pay for it or you like it and are willing to pay for it.

Of course BC needs improvement but what are you going to do? Pay for it and keep asking Ford to improve it or install an aftermarket system like Comma 3x. I’m not going to be touching BC as long as my truck’s in warranty but after I will be seriously looking at installing an aftermarket system if BC hasn’t improved.

There are two reasons I will not pay for BlueCruise: I find it to be of very little utility over TACC/Lane Keeping and Ford is showing no signs of efforts to improve their product.

In addition to my '24 Lariat, I have a '21 Tesla MYP and my wife drives a '23 Tesla MYLR. The Autopilot functionality, included at no additional cost, is far superior to BlueCruise as it works on all streets and doesn't constantly disengage at the worst possible moments. I am particularly frustrated by BlueCruise's habit of disengaging on interstate curves while at high speeds. In addition, Tesla provides updates and improves the product at least monthly. They even make a big deal about telling you it is coming and what specific things they are improving via release notes.

You can even just pop open the app to see what version of the software you are on while Ford refuses to even let you know what version you are on.

I have also purchased FSD on the MYP. As soon as I took delivery of the Tesla I applied to be in the Beta for FSD and as soon as I was accepted, I subscribed at $199/month (which has now dropped to $99). The first couple weeks I wasn't overly impressed, primarily due to phantom braking, but then I got an update that made significant improvements. A week later I got a minor release that fixed a few other things. Then another update and another. After 2 months I decided that while the product was still a bit rough, Tesla was very clearly committed to a program of continuous improvement, so I wrote the check for $8k to keep it permanently.

My wife is retired and only puts about 500 miles on her Tesla a month, so there isn't a lot of reason to put FSD on her vehicle permanently. We primarily take the MYP on road trips, but if we decide to take hers we just subscribe for the month. Tesla keeps improving and delivering updates to her car too even though she isn't authorized for the product, because Tesla is continuing to try to win her business. Two days ago they provided her with yet another 30 day trial of FSD. There have been a ton of improvements to the product since the last trial was provided in February. My wife is happily using it and recognizes that it has gotten better, so she is considering purchasing it for the current price of $8k.

As for my Lightning, the trial runs out in 5 days and I will not be subscribing. TACC and Lane Keeping have 90% of the utility of BlueCruise and works more predictably. If Ford decides to deliver improvements to my truck and gives me a free 30 day trial to check them out, I will evaluate it for what it is and subscribe if I think it adds value.

Until then, I will continue to communicate my feedback to Ford about BlueCrusie with my wallet.

 

[Ferroxide]

I know the new pricing structure for BlueCruise has been covered extensively on the forum, but it appears the push is on to get subscriptions up. The trial on my '24 Lariat is coming to an end in a little over a week and I received this e-mail last night:

I'm sure it's just an automated marketing message, but the e-mail address it is from appears to be a CSR e-mail ([email protected]), not some generic marketing address. The e-mail cites "As we discussed on the phone", but I haven't gotten any calls.

I'm interested if anyone else has been receiving e-mails or calls from Ford about subscribing to BlueCruise. Moreover if anyone has been contacted by Ford seeking feedback on why you may or may not be subscribing to BlueCruise. I do have constructive feedback on why I think it's still very over priced and will not subscribe. Clearly Ford is struggling with getting subscribers and collecting feedback is a good way to figure out why the numbers aren't where they want them to be.

Tesla, famous for having no marketing department, seems to be very interested about why one of their customers stops subscribing to their FSD product. My wife and I own 2 Teslas. We purchased the permanent FSD on one and didn't on the other. Earlier this year Tesla offered all owners a 30 day free trial of FSD. We used it for that month, but did not subscribe as that's my wife's car and we take mine for travel. We got a survey asking us about our experience and feedback on why we didn't subscribe following the trial.

We did, however, subscribe for a single month as we decided to take her Tesla for a road trip in late June and felt that 10 day trip was well worth the expense as we traveled over 2500 miles. After cancelling, we got a personal contact from Tesla again asking us why we didn't continue the subscription especially considering we had purchased FSD outright on our other Tesla. We again provided feedback.

So Ford, are you asking questions on why subscriptions are so low?

I received same email back in September notifying me of expiration/renewal (for $800/year or $75/month) after 3 month trial. I thought it was also humorous that email mentioned they had personally talked with me.
I wrote a letter to Ford saying same as most commentors on here that I wouldn't renew unless it got down to $10/month. Shortly afterwards they dropped their price point....
Software usage/subscriptions or upgrades should not cost an arm and a leg and any company charging as such needs to higher better marketing employees.
Same BS as SiriusXM and Verizon where you need to threaten them w/ leaving before they give you the decent price point-that IS available.

 

[PrimeRisk]

Same BS as SiriusXM and Verizon where you need to threaten them w/ leaving before they give you the decent price point-that IS available.

The only difference is that SiriusXM will market you for the next 10 years through every other week e-mails and monthly via post. They are absolutely relentless. We had a 2014 Chrysler 300c that was totaled and they STILL market us to renew the subscription.

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