Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free highway driving assist feature has thus far proven to be quite popular with users, and the numbers certainly support that, as the percentage of people taking advantage of it – and the number of miles they drive with the feature activated – continue to climb. That has been the case with each passing month, quarter, and year since BlueCruise originally launched in select 2021 model year vehicles, and it was also once again the case at the conclusion of the third quarter of 2024, too.
According to Ford’s Q3 financial reporting, there were 537,000 BlueCruise enabled vehicles on U.S. roads at the conclusion of Q3 2024, which is a 29 percent increase compared to Q2 – truly substantial growth. Overall, Ford’s paid software subscriptions grew by nearly 40 percent to 805,000, and the automaker has delivered 20 million over-the-air equipped vehicles in 2024 thus far. In its Q2 earnings report, Ford noted that BlueCruise was available in more than 415,000 vehicles on the road in the U.S., which was 25 percent more than Q1.
In addition to adding a free BlueCruise trial to certified pre-owned BlueAdvantage vehicles in October, Ford continues to tweak that particular feature and its pricing. That same month, Ford lowered the price of BlueCruise and began offering both a one-year BlueCruise plan and a one-time purchase option, the former of which is included as standard or as an option on various vehicle lines and trims. It will also continue to offer a 90-day complimentary trial, after which customers can opt to pay monthly or annually if they wish to continue using BlueCruise.
Just a few weeks later, Ford announced BlueCruise 1.5, which is set to add a hands-free lane change feature called Automatic Lane Change, enabling the software to initiate precisely that when the vehicle approaches slower-moving traffic. The 2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E will be the first Blue Oval vehicle to get BlueCruise 1.5, after which it will roll out to additional models.
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The last line of this article should read: The 2025 Ford Mustang Mach-E will be the ONLY Blue Oval vehicle to get BlueCruise 1.5!!! I’ve never heard of any non-EV model getting any updates. I can’t wait to get rid of my 23 Lincoln Corsair GT with BC, mainly because the ADAS will never get any better than it currently is. It’s good, but I see so many areas for improvement which are probably included in updated versions that I’ll never see. And I’ll NEVER pay for a software subscription that doesn’t get any updates. Goodbye Ford/Lincoln BlueCruise, hello GM Super Cruise.