Ford to debut AI assistant in app in early 2026, bring in‑car integration in 2027

Ford announced at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show that it is developing an AI assistant that will arrive first in its smartphone app and expand into vehicles in 2027, and it also teased a next-generation BlueCruise driver assistance system. The company said the digital assistant is hosted by Google Cloud and will be built using off‑the‑shelf large language models, with deep access to vehicle‑specific information.

Ford said the assistant will be able to answer high‑level questions such as "how many bags of mulch can my truck bed support?" and provide granular, real‑time data like oil life. The assistant is due to roll out to Ford’s revamped app in early 2026; a native in‑vehicle integration is planned for 2027, though Ford did not specify which models it will prioritize or detail the in‑car experience.

Ford described the next‑generation BlueCruise as about 30% cheaper to build than the current system and said it will debut in 2027 on the first EV using the company’s low‑cost "Universal Electric Vehicle" platform, which is expected to be a mid‑sized pickup. The automaker said the new system aims to enable eyes‑off driving in 2028 and claimed it will be capable of "point‑to‑point autonomy," similar to Tesla’s Full Self‑Driving (Supervised) software; Ford noted that these systems require drivers to be ready to take control at any moment.

Key Topics

Tech, Ford, Consumer Electronics Show, Bluecruise, Universal Electric Vehicle, Google Cloud