As holiday schedules get hectic and road travel gets busy, being present on your journey and relaxed when you arrive can make the whole season more enjoyable. BlueCruise can even help turn holiday drive time into opportunities for connections, especially for those long trips and stop-and-go holiday traffic.
Last year, Thanksgiving followed Labor Day as the holiday period with the most BlueCruise hands-free highway driving trips, as folks hit the road to gather with family and friends.1 The highways will busy again this year, with AAA projecting a record 71.7 million people will travel by car over Thanksgiving. That’s 1.3 million more travelers on the road compared to last year.
So what can we learn about BlueCruise during this time? In 2023, BlueCruise usage among Ford and Lincoln owners increased 2.2 percent during Thanksgiving 2 when traveling on highways with access to BlueCruise, compared to a non-holiday travel time period.3
That may not seem like a huge increase, but what the data shows is that people are logging lots of hands-free highway miles during longer drives even though there are fewer overall trips. After all, there’s typically less commuting to work during those days when people are heading over the river and through the woods to see grandma.
Overall in 2023, U.S. customers used BlueCruise more than 50% of the time for hour-plus drives on controlled access highways. Notably, around 77% of BlueCruise trips were under 20 minutes. That’s a lot of commutes – since the average commute time for U.S. drivers is 16-29 minutes, according to Statista Consumer Insights Global.
In 2024, we predict we will see even more BlueCruise trips overall and during the holiday travel season, as we have expanded its availability this year to more Ford and Lincoln vehicles. And 69% of Ford owners we surveyed shared they are planning to use BlueCruise on a road trip this holiday travel season. 4
Check out the hands-free highway driving holiday trends we saw across the U.S. from Ford and Lincoln owners in 2023 – and see what we can expect in 2024!
Full disclosure: This data is anonymized and is only collected from customers who have opted in to share it with Ford.
Thanksgiving is generally considered the start of the holiday season, and people start traveling as early as the weekend before. We looked at BlueCruise data starting the Friday before Thanksgiving to the Sunday after.
In 2023, the U.S. highway with the most BlueCruise hands-free highway driving trips during the Thanksgiving holiday travel period was Florida’s I-75 North.
Compared to a non-holiday travel period, the U.S. highway with the most BlueCruise hands-free highway driving trips was Michigan’s I-96. (This could have something to do with all the Ford employees commuting to work!)
U.S. highway corridors across 10 states – California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Utah, Texas and Washington – were the highways with more than 1,000 BlueCruise hands-free highway driving trips taken during the 2023 Thanksgiving holiday travel period.
In comparison, in 2023, California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, New York, Virginia, Washington and Arizona were the top 10 states with the most BlueCruise hands-free highway driving trips taken by Ford and Lincoln owners. 5
How far did Ford and Lincoln owners drive on the highway using BlueCruise during Thanksgiving 2023? Over 3 million miles were driven – the length of approximately 170,400 football fields combined.
That is over 317,000 miles per day -- and 2,700 hours spent using and enjoying BlueCruise.
While people hit the highways to visit friends and family throughout the holiday season between Thanksgiving and New Years, others enjoy staying close to home or not commuting to work and running the kids around.
We could conclude that is why we likely saw Ford and Lincoln owners take fewer BlueCruise trips during the 2023 holiday travel season, 6 in comparison to a non-holiday travel time period we sampled.7
For example, imagine you live in the suburbs of Houston, Texas and your hybrid work schedule requires a 30-minute highway commute at least three days a week. For Thanksgiving, you drive 5 hours east to New Orleans, Louisiana, enjoy time with family and don’t get back into your car until your return trip. While that is a little more time on the highways to use BlueCruise, you are taking fewer trips during the week.
For the entire 2023 holiday travel season, including before Thanksgiving and following New Years, owners drove over 13 million miles and spent over 200 hours using BlueCruise. That is the same amount of time as watching your favorite two-hour holiday movie on repeat 100 times.
2024 Holiday Travel Plans
What can we expect for 2024? The jury is still out. However, since expanding BlueCruise availability to more vehicles across Ford and Lincoln this year, we will have even more vehicles on the road equipped with the technology. So we expect the total number of BlueCruise trips to increase during the 2024 holiday travel season and overall.
To give us a glimpse into what we can expect, we surveyed a small group of Ford owners across engine types with BlueCruise-equipped electric, gas-powered and hybrid vehicles.
Of the owners who responded to the voluntary survey, 69% of Ford owners are planning to take a road trip during the holiday travel season and use BlueCruise during their trip.7 Some are planning to travel across multiple states, while others are taking a trip within their home state.
Here is what some of them shared.
Interested in embarking on your own BlueCruise trip? Click here to map your holiday journey, whether you are traveling to another city, taking a multi-state trip to see family, picking up your college student, or checking out a holiday light display.
If you have a BlueCruise-equipped vehicle and don’t have BlueCruise activated, you can choose a monthly plan just for the holidays, or an annual plan right from the FordPass app!
And, don’t forget to share your holiday journey with us using #BlueCruiseHoliday.
Disclaimers
1 Based on anonymized Ford customer connected vehicle data that customers have opted in to share.
2 The Thanksgiving holiday travel period is defined as the ten-day period in 2023 from Friday, November 17 to Sunday, November 26.
3 The non-holiday travel period sample period average is defined as a ten-day period in 2023 from Friday, October 13 - Sunday, October 22.
4 Ford sent a survey to 135 Ford owners from the Early Access Program and Electric Vehicle Owner Community with BlueCruise-equipped vehicles across engine types including gas-powered, hybrid and electric. Of those who received the survey, 36 owners responded, with 25 owners saying they plan to take a road trip and use BlueCruise on their trip.
5 Based on anonymized Ford customer connected vehicle data that customers have opted in to share, based on the state where the vehicle was purchased across all 50 states.
6 The holiday season travel period is defined as the 47-day period from November 17, 2023 to January 2, 2024.
7 The non-holiday travel period sample period average is defined as the 47-day period from Friday, September 8 – October 24, 2023.
*Available Feature. Equipped Ford vehicles come with either a complimentary trial period or an included duration, after which purchase of a BlueCruise subscription is required. Modem activation is required for subscription purchase and for initial activation of BlueCruise (for pre-2024 model year vehicles). See ford.com/bluecruise for details. BlueCruise is a driver-assist feature and does not replace safe driving or driver’s attention, judgment or 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.
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