My Hands-Free Highway Commute: As Told by a BlueCruise Manager
The Ford BlueCruise team is launching ‘BlueCruise Mapped’ – a round-up of hands-free highway driving trends we saw in 2024 across the U.S. from Ford and Lincoln owners.
BlueCruise1 shines on the highway in stop-and-go traffic for commutes and on long trips, and the data shows it’s used for both. In 2024, more than 70% of BlueCruise trips taken in the U.S. were under 20-minutes, such as a daily commute. However, its value was also proven on longer excursions like road trips as customers used BlueCruise nearly 50% of the time when driving longer than one hour.
What else did we uncover for 2024? Let’s jam out to the data trends.
Full disclosure: This data is anonymized and is only collected from customers who have opted in to share it with Ford.
The Most Wonderful Time(s) of the Year for BlueCruise
Labor Day weekend is right around the corner and it is one of the most popular times to use BlueCruise. In 2024, the Friday heading into Labor Day weekend – August 30, 2024 – had the highest number of BlueCruise trips taken out of the entire 2024 calendar year: Nearly 44,000 trips were taken, up about 32% from 2023. It’s been the day with the most trips taken for the last two years in a row.
With Labor Day marking the unofficial end of summer, many people are wrapping up their work week that Friday and then hitting the road to enjoy the long weekend. In fact, in 2024, INRIX shared that the afternoon and early evening hours of Thursday and Friday heading into the Labor Day Weekend would be the most congested for those traveling by car, so it seems natural that many would want to take advantage of BlueCruise during these heavily trafficked times.
In comparison, the Saturday ahead of the holiday travel season – December 21, 2024 – was the day where customers logged the most distance (610,000 miles) and spent the most time (8,600 hours) using BlueCruise, as folks headed out to enjoy time with family and friends. The data tells us that people are travelling further distances to one destination during the holiday season and perhaps staying put for longer vs. taking multiple trips on a single day to get where they need to go.
F-150 Truck Customers Take the BlueCruise Usage Crown
For 48 years, the F-series has been America’s best-selling truck.2 Now, we’re seeing F-150 take the crown for the most miles driven and time spent using BlueCruise. In 2024, F-150s logged 58 million miles and 826,000 hours with BlueCruise activated, up 42% from 2023. F-150 truck owners also took nearly the same number of trips as Mustang Mach-E owners.
Additionally, we can’t gloss over the all-electric F-150 Lightning truck. We saw a dramatic increase in usage year-over-year, with miles and hours driven up 59% and trips taken up 54%.
Overall, BlueCruise is being used by customers whether they have gasoline, hybrid or all electric engines – and across very different vehicle types such as SUVs and trucks.
Highway Battle for the Most BlueCruise Trips
Ford and Lincoln took lots of BlueCruise trips across U.S. highways in 2024. But which highway took the lead?
Michigan I-96 had the most trips taken with nearly 60,000 trips in 2024 – rightly so as it’s in Ford’s backyard. If you take proximity to Ford off the table, Florida I-95 had the most BlueCruise trips taken, which connects the beautiful East coast of Florida and runs through Miami, West Palm Beach, Daytona Beach, St. Augustine and Jacksonville. (Check out our Miami to St. Augustine BlueCruise summer road trip route!)
The Final Countdown to 2025
In 2024, 140 million miles were logged, and 2 million hours were spent using BlueCruise by Ford and Lincoln owners – up 33% over the previous year. Additionally, the number of trips taken was up 24% from the previous year with nearly 12 million trips taken.
Now, we’re over halfway through 2025 and we’ve expanded the number of vehicles where BlueCruise can be activated across our line-up, including the 2025 Explorer SUV. We also expanded availability to nearly 90% of 2025 Expedition SUV models, which are rolling out to customers now.
With over 1 million BlueCruise-equipped vehicles on the road today and more flexible ways to activate, we expect even more customers to enjoy an easier commute or road trip with their families. Let’s see where the rest of 2025 takes us.
Adam Ginsburgh is the general manager of Ford BlueCruise.
1 Available feature on select vehicles. BlueCruise requires an active plan or trial – see ford.com/bluecruise or lincoln.com/technology/bluecruise for details. Terms apply. BlueCruise is a driver-assist feature and does not replace safe driving, driver’s attention, judgment, and need to control the vehicle. Only remove hands in a hands-free Blue Zone. Always watch the road and be prepared to resume control. See Owner’s Manual for details and limitations.
2 Based on 1977-2024 CY industry-reported total sales.
Based on internal Ford data on BlueCruise engagement on BlueCruise-equipped vehicles between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 31, 2024 in the United States [in comparison to 2023 (Jan 1. 2023 – Dec. 31, 2023)]. Excludes 2025 Explorer and 2025 Aviator vehicles in operation in 2024.
