Ford’s newest hire for connected services, ex-Apple Peter Stern: “We know the playbook”

Lightning Blue Cruise. Credit: Ford

Ford’s recent new hire Peter Stern will be the automaker’s president of its newly-created Ford Integrated Services division.  

Described by CEO Jim Farley as a “very special leader” during Ford’s recent reporter Q&A call, Stern joins Ford with an impressive looking CV. 

His previous role as vice president of services at Apple lasted for almost a decade. During his tenure at the tech giant, Stern oversaw a plethora of media subscription services, including Apple TV+, Apple News, and Apple Books. Additionally, he headed up marketing for all Apple services, including the App Store and Apple Pay. 

Stern’s move comes as Ford and other automakers look to capitalise on software offerings and subscriptions, including autonomous driving features, like Ford’s BlueCruise, which enables hands-free motorway driving.

The automaker has 550,000 paid subscribers for its software services, with a 50% profit margin, Farley said during the call. 

The areas Stern wants to focus on “right out of the gate” include BlueCruise, which he said was “an enormous opportunity” and to build on the automaker’s existing success in the Pro [commercial vehicles] space. 

“Maybe they don’t want to be ‘nickel and dimed’ on top of the price of a new vehicle,” one reporter suggested, when he asked Stern about customer scepticism on software subscriptions. 

“I really would not view this as ‘nickel and diming’ our customers,” Stern replied, going on to say the opportunity Ford has is being able to “deliver significant ongoing value” to its customers, enabling them to have “safer, more convenient, [and] more productive experiences in the car.” 

“I’ve done this before,” Stern continued. “When I joined Apple, we had two subscription services – iCloud and Apple Music – and relatively low penetration for both. When I left, we had over a billion subscriptions from our customers.  We know the playbook.” 

Stern will be working alongside Doug Field, who had also worked at Apple as vice president of special projects and was the leader of Apple’s so-called autonomous project, Project Titan. Field had Stern said he will be “tied at the hip” with Field. “We will be together often and extremely close.” 

Stern will be reporting directly to Jim Farley.

BlueCruise is Ford’s ‘hands-free’ highway driving technology. Ford now is including BlueCruise hardware standard from the factory to provide flexibility and choices to more customers.  

Customers with equipped vehicles can choose to activate BlueCruise at any point during their vehicle ownership journey – at purchase, annually or even monthly – as well as have the opportunity to experience it through a complimentary trial if they choose not to activate at purchase. Ford is projected to install BlueCruise hardware on 500,000 vehicles for the 2024 model year in North America across Ford and Lincoln – expanding the availability onto more electric and gas-powered vehicles.  

“BlueCruise is an experience-it-to-believe-it technology, and people are amazed at how BlueCruise can help make driving less stressful and more enjoyable – especially in traffic or on long drives,” said Ashley Lambrix, Head of Commercial Acceleration – Ford Model e. “We believe in this technology and how it can help transform the highway driving experience and want to give more customers the opportunity to try it and provide flexibility for them to activate it when they want to use it.”  

Ford customers can choose to order or purchase a vehicle with BlueCruise already activated for three years. It can be rolled into the financing as part of the vehicle purchase. For customers who want to try out BlueCruise first, they can use BlueCruise for 90 days from vehicle purchase during a complimentary trial. At the end of the trial or at any point during their vehicle ownership, customers can activate it on an annual or monthly basis. Plus, to meet the needs of active or occasional users, there is no minimum length commitment required to activate it. For example, a customer could activate the service for one month for a road trip and not activate it again for another year.  

Previously, customers would have to decide when ordering the vehicle if they wanted BlueCruise so the hardware could be installed. Now, Ford is removing this burden from customers, not forcing them to decide upfront if they might want access to this technology.

According to the results of an S&P Global Mobility study earlier this year, consumers are willing to activate connected-car services that add value if they have the chance to try them first. In fact, 82% of respondents who had experienced a free trial or an existing connected service plan said they would “definitely” or “probably” consider purchasing a connected service on a future new vehicle purchase. 

Ford first applied this approach on the Mustang Mach-E, and the company now is expanding this flexibility on all 2024 model year vehicles where BlueCruise is available – F-150 Lightning, Ford F-150 and Ford Expedition.* 

BlueCruise activation for Ford customers costs $2,100 for three years at time of order or vehicle purchase. If a customer chooses not to activate upfront, after their complimentary trial they can choose an annual plan for $800 or a monthly plan for $75. If a customer chooses to forego activating BlueCruise, they can continue to experience Adaptive Cruise Control, which lets the driver set a cruising speed and distance from the vehicle ahead, including in stop-and-go traffic.