Bluecruise 1.5 - automated lane changes - MotorTrend test drive

[Vulnox]

Hardware upgrades for a fee is not unthinkable.

Yeah, just get a new vehicle. nyuck nyuck nyuck

It would be a way for Ford to really set themselves apart if they had not killed off the next gen vehicle network system and found a way to make more of these modules easier to service and as you mentioned upgrade. Would likely still be limits, like if some updated radar system just doesn't fit with original panels, but if it's down to module performance and they can swap them out it would help with warranty repair costs (due to ease of service) and give them a potential revenue stream in the hardware upgrade itself and in getting older vehicles into their subscription services the old hardware didn't support.

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[Ricks Lightning]

Ford is selling stale milk for the same price as fresh milk.
Imagine all those 24 lightnings that had a $2100.00 price on the sticker for 3 years of BC and 2022's are updated to 1.4 BC for free..

When i spoke to Ford technology last week ,they told me that updates are done in batches. So even if you're paying $50 for milk, you're still getting stale milk until you win the lottery.

Told them Im not buying stale milk and day old bread for full price, when others get the fresh milk and bread for the same price..

They totally understood what I was telling them and forwarded it to the cow.

So far the cow mas not mooed..

Rick

 

[Quibbs]

Ford is selling stale milk for the same price as fresh milk.
Imagine all those 24 lightnings that had a $2100.00 price on the sticker for 3 years of BC and 2022's are updated to 1.4 BC for free..

When i spoke to Ford technology last week ,they told me that updates are done in batches. So even if you're paying $50 for milk, you're still getting stale milk until you win the lottery.

Told them Im not buying stale milk and day old bread for full price, when others get the fresh milk and bread for the same price..

They totally understood what I was telling them and forwarded it to the cow.

So far the cow mas not mooed..

Rick

It would be so bovine if Ford did reply, and with no bull.
(sorry that was so cheesy).
Though it would be udderly a big misteak to hold one's breath waiting for a reply.

 

[Lytning]

Why would anyone expect to get HARDWARE UPGRADES for free from anyone, ever, for anything?? On what planet does anyone do that? Or think that they're entitled to that? Or get a discount for being on old hardware??? Some people are completely disconnected from reality. Maybe Apple will start giving you new phones for free because they made a new one? Or charge you less money for your iCloud if you stay on an old phone?

Speaking of Apple ... I was at an Apple store to get the battery replaced on my wife's iWatch 6 @ 66% battery condition. Cost was $99. I decided to go ahead and replace the battery on my iWatch 4 @ 80% battery condition. Cost was $400. I asked the Apple rep to explain. He said it would cost $99 if the battery was at 79% or less. I did not even try to understand. Did you notice that my 7 year old iWatch 4 had a better battery condition than my wife's 3 year old iWatch 6?

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

Patrick and Liv with Mach-e vlog tested it also. Ford still has a long way to justify the price tag and if I'm not mistaken, there's different hardware on the 25's so older models may be stuck at 1.4. That or we might get it sometime around 2050. On the fence of just going the comma route.

Same here on the comma ai. More capable, more functional, probably cheaper in the long run. Just need to get over the hump of 3rd party vehicle control vs. OEM. I'm pretty much there, but The Wife is a little more conservative than I am on these matters.

 

[sotek2345]

I have no issues if the older year models can't get the upgrade because of hardware changes. That happens and is part of life. I just hope Ford is clear on the communications of that and doesn't leave us all sitting around waiting for something that will never happen.

 

[PJnc284]

Same here on the comma ai. More capable, more functional, probably cheaper in the long run. Just need to get over the hump of 3rd party vehicle control vs. OEM. I'm pretty much there, but The Wife is a little more conservative than I am on these matters.

Really tempted with it being $200 off. Still very much a work in progress on Fords but seems to work pretty well

 

[ExCivilian]

Why would anyone expect to get HARDWARE UPGRADES for free from anyone, ever, for anything?? On what planet does anyone do that? Or think that they're entitled to that? Or get a discount for being on old hardware???

I always find it strange when adults, who have surely had similar mundane life experiences as I have, so firmly claim things not to be true even though they clearly happen to be true.

The fact of the matter is BC is not free--it's a subscription service. And unless I've been living a very different life from everyone else in this discussion, my experience is that it's relatively normal for subscription pricing to be inclusive of everything necessary to avail oneself of all the features of the subscription. It's in the company's best interest to offer that "perk" to its existing customer base for what should be obvious reasons: primarily so people don't cancel their subscriptions!

On this planet, in this lifetime, everyone from cable internet, cable TV, satellite TV, medical device providers, and even telephone companies offer(ed) updated hardware as part of the subscription fee when a hardware requirement exists to fully utilize the subscription being paid for. It's only the latest iteration of phone subscriptions where the trend has been to decouple the device from the service where people have this notion that you might end up with a device that becomes outdated relative to the subscription you're paying for...but even still that's not the situation across every service provider. And in regards to paying different tiered pricing for differences of service that's literally every service provider I've ever encountered in my life whether it's BYOD internet providers (TWC and Spectrum both offer(ed) lower priced service options for unsupported devices) or cellular carriers (Tmobile and ATT both offer(ed) lower price subscription options for unsupported devices).

Yeah, that's going to continue to be a rough spot for people to get over, even though they have as you pointed out had phones and computers that even if they can be updated, still have an end life on when some updates can't apply to them. You can keep an iPhone for several years, but every year the new iOS will have some features that your phone won't be able to get. Just because cars can get updates doesn't mean some features just won't be possible.

You're comparing the manufacturer to a service provider. People wouldn't expect Ford to update their hardware just because they bought outdated hardware from Ford. That's a different expectation from Ford *as a BC provider* updating subscribers' hardware to fully utilize the features they're rolling out.

It's only relatively recently that cellular providers have decoupled hardware upgrade costs from cellular subscription pricing and that largely as a result of Tmobile's push years ago to capture a customer base who were satisfied using outdated or otherwise unsupported devices on their network (and offered different tiered pricing for those service options, as well).

It's in the service provider's best interest to ensure their customers are on compatible devices or else they'll cancel the service and go elsewhere.

Even Apple recognizes this basic principle and only recently scuttled their own phone subscription plan (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...to-build-iphone-hardware-subscription-service)

 

[ExCivilian]

You aren’t paying a BC fee to get auto lane changes. You are paying a BC fee for one reason, mapped highways. That’s it. End of story.

This is clearly false. "Blue Cruise" includes everything from the mapping to the sensors to the logic involved under the hood. Ford knows customers won't pay $50/month for "maps" and even discussing it like GPS mapping providers is a misnomer: BC "maps" are the overlay for BC to function as it follows Ford's freeway mapping--they aren't "maps" in the general sense of the word and aren't customer facing at all. Any Blue Cruise subscriber will expect the features of BC to work and no amount of "you're only paying for maps [that you don't/can't actually use]" arguments will change that reality.

Auto lane changes or even the initiated lane changes are NOT BlueCruise features. They are just what is possible due to the new hardware on the MME.

These two sentences don't make any sense to me. Lane changes *are* part of BC features and they are being advertised as such. It's the headline difference in BC 1.5.

How can automated lane change be a major, or possibly only, feature change in 1.5 and *not* be part of BC?

Which is why I used the Apple analogy. This is like a new OS with features only possible due to the new iPhone hardware. Whether or not you have an Apple Music subscription is irrelevant.

Yeah, I know why you used it. You were wrong then and you're wrong now. Apple doesn't sell its customers phones as a service. If they did, and I posted a link of a strategy they were working on to do so until very recently, they would have to offer upgraded devices as part of their subscription service if their old devices couldn't utilize the features.

Services like Apple Music are decoupled from the device itself--a user doesn't even need an apple device to utilize Apple Music. Other services, like Apple AI, are part and parcel of the device. And when coupled features like that don't work the device is generally replaced under warranty by Apple so I'm not sure what you think you've proven with that example.

 

[The Weatherman]

I believe the elephant in the room when it comes the cans and can’t of BC 1.? Is the lack of candor and ongoing timely communications from Ford.

 

[F150ROD]

Why would anyone expect to get HARDWARE UPGRADES for free from anyone, ever, for anything?? On what planet does anyone do that? Or think that they're entitled to that? Or get a discount for being on old hardware??? Some people are completely disconnected from reality. Maybe Apple will start giving you new phones for free because they made a new one? Or charge you less money for your iCloud if you stay on an old phone?

Who's asking for a free upgrade? No one expects it, but it would be nice for @Ford Motor Company to offer the upgrade for a fee......like Tesla, you know maybe a small way to move more towards EV's...

Apple does give new phone for free (via phone providers) because they made a new one......

Is this sarcasm?

 

[TechnoSwiss]

Glad to see they're still doing development on it, really wish they'd get 1.4 rolled out to everybody, leaving on a road trip tomorrow and the update would have been really nice.

 

[jdmackes]

All I can say is once every two weeks leave the truck running for an hour or so in a place with good cellular coverage.

Go grocery shopping? Leave it running in the parking lot.

So leave it on but in park? Long drives wouldn't do it? I never seem to get updates, last one I got was in August or October of last year.

 

[TaxmanHog]

So leave it on but in park? Long drives wouldn't do it? I never seem to get updates, last one I got was in August or October of last year.

This was the process we did to get the 12v battery fully charged, but idling your truck is not going to coax the Ford Update Servers any faster into issuing your OTA, it's only coming when the wizard behind the curtain says it shall be..............

 

[jdmackes]

This was the process we did to get the 12v battery fully charged, but idling your truck is not going to coax the Ford Update Servers any faster into issuing your OTA, it's only coming when the wizard behind the curtain says it shall be..............

K, just wanted to make sure. My 12v battery is almost always above 90% anyway, I just never get an updates (at least not any real ones, I get the little icon saying I have a pending update all the time but it's never accurate)

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