Ford Adds a Free AI Assistant to Its App for 8 Million Owners
Got a Ford or Lincoln? A new chatbot already knows your truck's towing limit, your fuel level, and what your owner's manual says. Here is what it does and what it costs.
Key points
- Ford is rolling out a free AI chatbot to the Ford and Lincoln mobile apps, targeting 8 million vehicle owners.
- The assistant can answer questions about towing capacity, fuel levels, cargo space, and service needs using live data from the vehicle itself.
- Ford plans to bring a voice-powered version inside vehicles by 2027, with Google's Gemini AI available in the dashboard in the meantime.
- Ford says the assistant is free, but has not committed to keeping it free once it moves from the app into the vehicle's own system.
- Rivian, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and General Motors have all launched rival in-car AI tools in recent months.
Ford wants to put an AI assistant, a chatbot similar to the kind you find in ChatGPT, directly in the hands of its drivers without asking them to buy a new car. The feature is live now in the Ford and Lincoln mobile apps and rolling out in waves to roughly 8 million owners.
What can it actually do for you?
The assistant knows your specific vehicle. Because the app is already linked to your car or truck, it pulls in live data: current fuel level, how much weight your truck can tow, how much cargo space you have, and when service might be coming due.
You can also upload a photo, say a picture of a boat or a piece of furniture, and ask whether your vehicle can handle it. The assistant will also answer questions straight from your owner's manual, which means less time digging through a glove box.
For now, this all happens on your phone. Ford told The Verge AI it plans to bring a voice-powered version inside the vehicles themselves in 2027.
What does it cost, and what is the catch?
Ford says the assistant is free. No subscription, no paywall, at least for now.
The honest caveat: the company would not say whether the free price holds once the assistant moves off your phone and into the vehicle's dashboard screen. That matters, because automakers have a history of locking features behind monthly fees after launch.
How does this compare to what other carmakers are doing?
| Automaker | AI tool | Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Ford / Lincoln | Ford AI assistant (Gemini in dashboard now) | Own app first, in-car by 2027 |
| Rivian | Rivian voice assistant | Built into vehicle |
| Mercedes-Benz | Mercedes voice assistant | Built into vehicle |
| BMW | Amazon Alexa | Third-party supplier |
| General Motors | Google Gemini | Third-party supplier |
| Volvo / Polestar | Google Gemini (via Android OS) | Built into vehicle OS |
Ford's approach is different from most rivals. Rather than waiting for a software update that only reaches newer models, Ford is using the app to reach every owner immediately.
In the dashboard right now, Ford and Lincoln vehicles running Android-based software will get Google's Gemini AI, a large language model (an AI trained on huge amounts of text to hold conversations and answer questions), as an opt-in option for navigation, texts, and media playback. Ford says the long-term goal is for its own assistant to handle all of that, merging vehicle-specific questions with everyday requests in one place.
Ford's assistant is designed to work with multiple AI systems rather than depending on a single provider, which gives the company flexibility to swap or update the underlying technology over time.
What should Ford or Lincoln owners do right now?
Open the Ford or Lincoln mobile app and look for the assistant feature. If it has not appeared yet, it is rolling out gradually, so check back. Try asking it something specific to your vehicle, your towing limit, your next service date, and judge from there whether it earns a place in your routine.
And keep an eye on the pricing page once the in-car version launches in 2027. Free today does not always mean free tomorrow.
