Ford Unveils AI Assistant and BlueCruise Upgrades at CES 2026

Ford Motor Company unveiled plans for an advanced AI assistant and enhancements to its BlueCruise driver-assistance system during a presentation at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Wednesday. The announcements, delivered in a session titled "Great Minds" focused on technology's role in human experiences, highlight the automaker's push toward more integrated and affordable vehicle intelligence.

The AI assistant, designed to provide personalized support tailored to individual vehicles and drivers, will debut in the Ford and Lincoln mobile apps in the first half of 2026. It features a chat interface supporting voice and text interactions, similar to popular models like ChatGPT, and draws on off-the-shelf large language models hosted on Google Cloud. Engineers have integrated it with extensive vehicle-specific data, enabling responses to queries about features, capacities and real-time conditions. For instance, users can ask about the Pro Power Onboard system or upload a photo of items like bags of mulch to determine how many would fit in their truck bed, based on the model's dimensions and load ratings. The assistant can also pull live telemetry, such as...