The 2023 Ford Escape made its debut in late October, showing off nifty updates such as Sync 4 connectivity and a completely revamped trim level lineup which now includes the Base, Active, PHEV, ST-Line and Platinum. However, the forthcoming crossover will not offer BlueCruise, The Blue Oval’s semi-autonomous driver assist feature, and Ford Authority spoke with the team behind the Escape’s development to find out exactly why that is.
Ford Mustang Mach-E with BlueCruise
“We saw that feature [BlueCruise] as less relevant for this customer group. We prioritized the Sync 4 feature and the 360-degree camera development,” Michael Geaney, 2023 Ford Escape chief program engineer, explained to Ford Authority Executive Editor Alex Luft in an interview.
As previously mentioned, Sync 4 is standard on the 2023 Ford Escape, which features standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capabilities. The 360-degree camera, meanwhile, shows an overhead view of the vehicle while backing up and adds a front and rear camera washer to the crossover. This feature is available with Tech Pack #2, which is an optional extra that can be added to the Escape Active, ST-Line Select and PHEV, and is included as standard for the Escape ST-Line Elite and Platinum trims.
Interestingly, the Ford Escape’s upscale corporate cousin, the 2023 Lincoln Corsair, features ActiveGlide, which is the luxury automaker’s version of BlueCruise.
As a reminder, other upgrades on the way for the 2023 Ford Escape include the Fully Networked Vehicle (FNV) electrical architecture, enabling over-the-air (OTA) updates to the infotainment and other vehicle systems while enhancing cybersecurity. It’s also important to note that while the crossover does feature an all-new ST-Line, this is not the Ford Escape ST, since there are currently no plans to produce a range-topping performance variant.
Production of the refreshed crossver will begin at the Louisville Assembly plant in mid-December.
We’ll have more on the 2023 Escape soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for more Ford Escape news and 24/7 Ford news coverage.
Comments
More likely it wasn’t worth the mid cycle investment. I imagine it will be offered on a successor vehicle.
I am the Escape customer base. I own a 2022 PHEV, and have a 2023 PHEV on order, and I would absolutely have opted for BlueCruise if it were an option. PHEV customers are going to skew toward tech nerds, and BlueCruise would appeal to almost all of us. Ford missed an opportunity here. I’m sure they believed they could get people to move up to the Corsair PHEV if they wanted BlueCruise, but Ford won’t allow any of my local Lincoln dealers to sell PHEVs, so….
Why is the Escape always the last to be delivered and produced.