The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into Ford's hands-free driving technology, BlueCruise, after it was found to be engaged in two fatal collisions. In both incidents, a Mustang Mach-E SUV ran into another vehicle that was stopped in the travel lane of a highway.
The inquiry involves about 130,000 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles from the 2021 to 2024 model years. The preliminary evaluation will determine whether these vehicles present an unreasonable risk to safety.
A Ford spokesperson told Reuters the company is working with the NHTSA.
In addition to the NHTSA's efforts, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting separate investigations into the crashes. One of the accidents under scrutiny occurred Feb. 24, when a Mustang Mach-E using BlueCruise struck a stationary Honda CR-V on I-10 in San Antonio, TX, resulting in the death of the 56-year-old driver of the Honda. Another incident on March 3 in Philadelphia involved a similar scenario, where BlueCruise was confirmed to be active just before the collision.
Both incidents happened during nighttime lighting conditions, pointing to potential issues with the system’s performance during limited visibility.
Ford's BlueCruise, part of the Co-Pilot360 Active 2.0 package, operates on 97% of U.S. and Canadian highways with no intersections or traffic signals. The system uses a camera-based driver monitoring system to ensure driver attention, but the recent accidents have put its effectiveness under scrutiny. The investigations will assess the system’s capability in handling dynamic driving tasks and monitoring driver attentiveness.
Similarly, the NHTSA also recently opened an investigation to determine if a recall to install software updates to Tesla's Autopilot system was adequate. After more than 2 million vehicles were recalled in December, the NHTSA said it has received reports of 20 crashes involving Teslas with the update.
