Ford is developing an AI assistant that will debut on 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 unveiled a new generation of its advanced BlueCruise driver assistance system, which is both cheaper to build and more capable — eventually leading to driving in 2028.
Wednesday’s announcement was one of the only ones to come from a major automaker at CES, marking a sharp shift from the late 2010s, when they dominated the show. And it wasn’t at a fancy main event. Instead, Ford discussed the news in a speaker session called “Great Minds” that was meant to “explore the intersection of technology and humanity.”
Ford says the digital assistant is hosted by Google Cloud and will be built using off-the-shelf LLM, and the company provides deep access to vehicle information. This 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 request detailed real-time information such as oil life.
The company opens its assistant newly updated Ford app in early 2026. A native in-vehicle integration will come in 2027, though the company won’t specify which models it’s prioritizing.
Ford hasn’t gone into much detail about what the in-car experience will be like, but it’s not hard to imagine the possibilities when looking at some of the automaker’s most technologically advanced vehicles.
Just last month, Rivian introduced its own digital assistant that sends and receives text messages, handles complex navigation requests and switches air conditioners. Tesla has integrated Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot into its vehicles, which customers have used to create on-site sightseeing tours. Some of these possibilities may overshadow what Ford has in mind, but the automaker also has a full year to complete the integration into the car.
The new BlueCruise system unveiled Wednesday is 30 percent cheaper to build than current technology, according to Ford. It will debut in 2027 with the first EV built on the company’s low-cost “Universal Electric Vehicle” platform, which is expected to be a mid-size pickup.
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Ford promises more with this next-generation BlueCruise system, including eyes-free driving in 2028. However, it also claims the system will be able to handle “point-to-point autonomy,” similar to what Tesla offers with its Fully Self-Driving (Supervised) software. Rivian has also teased a point-to-point system coming later this year. All of these systems require drivers to be ready to take control of the car at all times.
