At least it’s not as expensive as Tesla’s full self-driving package.
Following big updates and improvements late last year, Ford just revealed a massive price increase to its BlueCruise hands-free driving technology. As confirmed by Ford on the Mach-E forum, pricing will quadruple and now costs $75 per month or $800 annually.
For those unaware, BlueCruise is a hands-free driving software experience primarily available on highways. Ford owners can enjoy hands-free lane changes, blind spot detection, in-lane repositioning, and more on roughly 130,000+ miles of roadways in North America.
Initially, BlueCruise was $200 per year ($600 for a 3-year subscription) for new Mustang Mach-E owners. However, moving forward, new Mach-E buyers can buy that same 3-year subscription for $2,100, or $700 per year. That’s a substantial increase from the previous pricing.
According to a dealer bulletin shared on the Mach-E forum and verified by Ford, customers that choose not to subscribe and want to add it later will see a price tag of $75 per month or $800 a year. That’s a 400% increase. Even worse, existing customers looking to renew BlueCruise will see the same price hike.
As expected, this isn’t going over well with customers. The forum post quickly exploded to nearly 30 pages long, with most drivers saying they’d never pay that much for the limited features available. Again, this is primarily useful for highway driving.
BlueCruise is similar to Tesla’s Autopilot software, which costs anywhere from $99 to $200 per month, but not nearly as sophisticated. It’s also vastly different than the Tesla full self-driving (FSD) beta software, which runs around $15,000.
Still, when you consider this same package previously cost around $200 per year and now will run Mach-E (and potentially F-150 Lightning) owners $800 annually, it’s a tough pill to swallow. I wouldn’t be surprised if Ford reverses course and finds a different approach. We’ve reached out to Ford for clarification and if this pricing extends to other models.
