Blue Cruise renewal

[RipInPepz]

Bluecruise should be free. The dang truck is discontinued; come on Ford you got your sale. Just give it to us...

They gave me a measly 3 month trial with my $72k truck. I'm not paying $50 a month for when I take 1 hour highway trips twice a month. But it sure would be nice to have it. I usually only buy once or twice a year when I'm going on vacation and have a 10 hour drive.

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[Kenstjohn]

Interesting discussion ... I'm having some similar reservations about renewing BC on the F-150 when it comes up in September. Right now, I'd say there's just about no chance I'll continue except possibly if we decided to take the Lightning on a road trip.

My bigger decision is the 90-day trial we have on Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) that expires at the end of August. Tesla wants $100 a month to continue. Certainly not chump change!! Initially, I figured I'd skip it until we went on a road trip, sort of the same idea as the F-150. But I'll admit I'm beginning to have second thoughts. We did a round trip to Sacramento and it was so stress free letting it find chargers, as well as places to eat, etc., along the way, so no question I'd want it on a road trip. However, sitting there while it does a perfect job of driving me around town with better than 99% accuracy is a stunning piece of technology!! It''s really quite enjoyable.

Hmmmmmm.....

Ken

 

[klossfam]

I had a long and probably useless discussion with the Ford Pro group during calls to try to get me to pay for BC.

My Lightning expired after 4 free years on 6/6 and my wife's Mach-E after 1 free year on 7/25. I've also talked with the EAP team via email on free extensions as I've done some goofy stuff for them over the years like the failed Canopy Security product.

No replies or serious consideration of my input. Not that it is surprising with FoMoCo. I'm one who road trips both vehicles a lot and I'd find value in BC for a reasonable price. I even guesstimated to them a 40-60% renewal rate over current levels if a $19.95/mo or $199/year were offered.

You would have a hard time explaining to me the profitability of having developed code for BC and making $0 from say 1,000 drivers vs $20/mo from 300. It's crazy to let the bulk of already baked product produce $0 of revenue when you still need a staff to maintain it.

Just a dumb business model.

 

[bosox8]

After 4 years my BC expired four days ago - I'll genuinely miss having it but have ZERO intentions of paying $50 / month, $495 / year. I see people here referring to COMMA AI but when I check their website it doesn't appear to work with the Lightning - their site is very specific says '22 F-150 and '22 F-150 Hybrid - does not say '22 F-150 LIghtning.

 

[RickLightning]

Here's the reality.

- Ford has redone their take models, i.e. how many people renew at what prices, several times. The current ~$500 a year and $50 a month is the result of several decreases. They have also changed the offer that comes with the vehicle, giving a 90 day trial or a 7 year price (maybe there are others).

- The reality is that the Lightning is dead. What they offer to Lightning owners won't be any different than what they offer to other models. Right now this is the cost, and there is no amount of Lightning owners acceptance, or non-acceptance, of those options that is going to change anything.

- As time goes on, they'll discover whether people are taking it going forward, or not. They have BILLIONS baked into their financials going forward for connected services.

- Both our Mach-E and Lightning expired. I will likely turn it on, for a specific trip > 1 day, at $49.95 a month. That's maybe 2 to 3 times a year.

- While I think Comma.ai is neat, $999 + vehicle-specific adapters/harnesses is not. We may swap the Mach-E for a Rivian R2. I note that Rivian compatibility with R1S/R1T ended with 2024. I read about all these "forks", and start thinking about Elmer in his basement in his sweats coding, and that concerns me.

 

[RickLightning]

I had a long and probably useless discussion with the Ford Pro group during calls to try to get me to pay for BC.

My Lightning expired after 4 free years on 6/6 and my wife's Mach-E after 1 free year on 7/25. I've also talked with the EAP team via email on free extensions as I've done some goofy stuff for them over the years like the failed Canopy Security product.

No replies or serious consideration of my input. Not that it is surprising with FoMoCo. I'm one who road trips both vehicles a lot and I'd find value in BC for a reasonable price. I even guesstimated to them a 40-60% renewal rate over current levels if a $19.95/mo or $199/year were offered.

You would have a hard time explaining to me the profitability of having developed code for BC and making $0 from say 1,000 drivers vs $20/mo from 300. It's crazy to let the bulk of already baked product produce $0 of revenue when you still need a staff to maintain it.

Just a dumb business model.

One of the challenges is doing things with a company like Ford is that it's all one-off. There is no relationship building.

I also did the Canopy project. I got paid fairly for my time during installs and discussions. Then, a year later, they say "throw it away". It's folded into Ford Protect, and there is no continuity with testers to carry it forward.

I did some other stuff over the years, none paid. Got some swag at events, nothing more. Got invited to the Lightning launch, with hotel and meals. But that was in return for them having a cheering crowd.

2 or so years ago, Ford was testing a referral program. I, as a person attending 6+ EV events a year, would have been perfect to be part of that. I was, at the time, talking about Ford at every event. I had zero success in getting into this program (I believe it quietly went away), and my dealership had zero interest in investigating. Once they killed the Lightning (after I promoted it at the World HQ Event for free), I no longer go to EV events, because they were dropping in attendance and I have a dead model, which I'm not wasting my time explaining to people, because it makes no sense to me.

I test with multiple companies. Some are one off and done, some continue the relationship. Most have no clue what a relationship means. I tested cameras for one company (posted here), and one failed 6 months in. Company offered to sell me a new one at a discount. Turns out the person handing out the free cameras must have worked for a 3rd party, they now ghost me. I reached out to several other camera companies, and one is enthusiastically offering me replacement cameras to post a review (which will of course specify I got the camera for free). And full warranty for the time of the warranty coverage.

As to BlueCruise pricing, you can't go and do any special deals for a subset of owners in the days of social media. There are no secrets, there are no private codes. Before social media, you could offer a 100 different prices all kept separate, now that's impossible. Even when you have people sign NDAs and tell them to shut up, they don't. Back before Ford's layoffs, I was testing something that should have been rolled out, but wasn't. My contact on that left the company, as did all my other contacts, so I know bupkas about why.

I used to work in the direct mail / catalog business. Keycodes drove the promos, and you could match the person to the offer and invalidate pricing they weren't due.

Right now I'm trying to replace my Samsung Watch 7 with a 9. My son, using their edu site (legit), got $80 offer. I, using their edu site (legit), get $60 off. Even with proof they offer vague "promos change all the time" but this was within a 2 hour period yesterday. They don't care if I buy or not.

 

[klossfam]

Here's the reality.

- Ford has redone their take models, i.e. how many people renew at what prices, several times. The current ~$500 a year and $50 a month is the result of several decreases. They have also changed the offer that comes with the vehicle, giving a 90 day trial or a 7 year price (maybe there are others).

- The reality is that the Lightning is dead. What they offer to Lightning owners won't be any different than what they offer to other models. Right now this is the cost, and there is no amount of Lightning owners acceptance, or non-acceptance, of those options that is going to change anything.

- As time goes on, they'll discover whether people are taking it going forward, or not. They have BILLIONS baked into their financials going forward for connected services.

- Both our Mach-E and Lightning expired. I will likely turn it on, for a specific trip > 1 day, at $49.95 a month. That's maybe 2 to 3 times a year.

- While I think Comma.ai is neat, $999 + vehicle-specific adapters/harnesses is not. We may swap the Mach-E for a Rivian R2. I note that Rivian compatibility with R1S/R1T ended with 2024. I read about all these "forks", and start thinking about Elmer in his basement in his sweats coding, and that concerns me.

They are 'offering' $34.99 per mo for 3 months on the recently expired Mach-Es (ours is a 2025). Or $295 for another year which would make more sense.

My 2022 Lightning 3 years + 1 additional free yr only has the $50/$495 offer.

Either way, just not doing it. What I don't appreciate is them only trying to sell me on the options via email and phone, yet never responding to anything I communicate.

I've done more stupid stuff for them via EAP than 90% of people and the sure fire way to lose me is to make it a 1 way street.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I used the balance of my Fordpass points for a partial credit for a monthly extension 8/5 to 9/4, after that I'll cancel it, then only activate BC for a long multi day trip.

 

[oldman_74]

When I have points and going a trip I will use my points to purchase, its not bad but very expensive, almost the same a Tesla, and not nearly as elegant..

 

[davehu]

mine will expire in September unused for 3 years. I have no need for it and am not happy it's even legal. Driving is a responsibility not to be turned over to a computer.

 

[klossfam]

mine will expire in September unused for 3 years. I have no need for it and am not happy it's even legal. Driving is a responsibility not to be turned over to a computer.

For better or worse it drives better than some people...

 

[oldman_74]

looks like 7 id available: https://bluepilot.dev/2026/07/17/bluepilot-7-0-is-now-live/

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