Ford has an AI assistant and new hands-free BlueCruise tech on the way

Ford is developing an AI assistant that will debut in the company’s smartphone app, before expanding to its vehicles in 2027, the company announced Wednesday at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show. The company also teased a next-generation of its BlueCruise advanced driver assistance system that is both cheaper to make and more capable — ultimately leading to eyes-off driving in 2028.

Wednesday’s announcement was one of the only ones to come from a major automaker at CES, marking a sharp turnaround from the late 2010s when they dominated the show. And it wasn’t made at a flashy keynote event; rather, Ford discussed the news at a speaker session called “Great Minds” that was meant to “explore the intersection of technology and humanity.”

Ford says it digital assistant is hosted by Google Cloud and will be built using off-the-shelf LLMs, and the company is giving it deep access to vehicle-specific information. That means the assistant can answer high-level questions like “how many bags of mulch can my truck bed support?” But it also means owners will be able to ask for granular, real-time information like oil life.

The company is rolling the assistant out to its newly-revamped Ford app in early 2026. A native, in-vehicle integration will come in 2027, though the company wouldn’t specify which models it’s prioritizing.

Ford didn’t go into great detail about what the in-car experience will look like, but it’s not hard to imagine the possibilities when looking at some of the more tech-forward automakers.

Just last month, Rivian showed off its own digital assistant sending and receiving text messages, handling complex navigation requests, and changing climate controls. Tesla has integrated Elon Musk’s chatbot Grok in its vehicles, which customers have used to generate on-the-spot sightseeing tours. Some of those capabilities may eclipse what Ford has in mind, but the automaker also has a full year to hammer out the in-car integration.

The new BlueCruise system teased on Wednesday is 30% cheaper to build than the current technology, according to Ford. It will debut in 2027 on the first EV to be built on the company’s low-cost “Universal Electric Vehicle” platform, which is expected to be a mid-sized pickup.

Ford is promising more with this next-generation BlueCruise system, including eyes-off driving in 2028. But it also claims the system will be capable of handling “point-to-point autonomy,” similar to what Tesla offers with its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) software. Rivian has also teased a point-to-point system coming later this year. All of these systems require the drivers to be ready to take control of the car at any moment.