• Ford has reduced subscription pricing for BlueCruise automated driver-assist system
• BlueCruise still comes with 90-day complimentary trial period
  
• Ford offering customers a one-time purchase option for BlueCruise for the first time

Ford is making it easier to access BlueCruise, by slashing pricing for the hands-free driving system for highways.

Ford is also offering BlueCruise as a one-time purchase for the first time, alongside existing monthly and yearly subscriptions. A previous three-year subscription has been dropped starting with the 2025 model year.

Vehicles compatible with BlueCruise still offer a 90-day complimentary trial and in some high-end models that trial lasts one year. Beyond the trial period, BlueCruise can be added as a monthly subscription costing $49.99, down from $75 previously, or as an annual subscription costing $495, down from $800 previously.

The subscriptions can be canceled at any time, meaning a customer could add the monthly subscription and use BlueCruise for just a single month, for example for a vacation, and then cancel the subscription the next month.

There’s also the new one-time purchase option costing $2,495. The one-time purchase is only available on new 2024 or 2025 Ford and Lincoln vehicles compatible with BlueCruise, and can be added when a vehicle is ordered or at a later date as an upgrade. Ford said BlueCruise will be active for a minimum of seven years and is non-transferrable to another vehicle.

Ford on Tuesday said it plans to expand BlueCruise to more vehicles across the Ford and Lincoln lineups, though specific vehicles weren’t mentioned.

The latest version of BlueCruise, version 1.4, was only introduced in September. Ford said the latest system can handle more challenging conditions such as a tight curve, a narrow lane, inclement weather, and the sun’s reflection on the sensors. This results in the system operating in hands-free mode around five times longer than version 1.2 launched a year ago and eight times longer than the original version 1.0 launched in 2021, according to Ford.

BlueCruise can currently operate on around 130,000 miles of divided highways in the U.S. and Canada. Like General Motors’ Super Cruise and Tesla’s Autopilot with Full Self-Driving, the driver still needs to monitor the road and be ready to take over at any time, thus ranking these systems at only Level 2 on the SAE scale of self-driving capability. Level 3 is the first ranking where the driver can take their eyes off the road, and currently only Mercedes-Benz’s Drive Pilot has the Level 3 ranking.