The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Office of Defect Investigation has announced an investigation into Ford’s BlueCruise advanced driver assistance system related to two fatal crashes involving Ford’s Mustang Mach-E models.
The NHTSA confirmed that in both cases the BlueCruise hands-free system was activated before the impact, TechCrunch report. The premium feature has been available on a variety of Ford and Lincoln vehicles since the 2021 model year.
BlueCruise operates on 97% of pre-mapped roads in the US and Canada without intersections or signals. The system is not fully autonomous, and is based on external cameras, as well as cameras facing the driver and infrared lighting that monitors the driver’s awareness. If the driver appears distracted, it warns to return the His eyes on the road.
In the first incident in late February just before 10 p.m., a Ford Mustang Mach-E traveling in the center lane of I-10 in San Antonio, Texas collided with a stationary Honda CR-V occupied by a 56-year-old vehicle. Old driver. “Following the collision, the Honda overturned and was found in the left lane.” NHTSA saidand added that the Honda driver was fatally injured.
The second incident happened in early April on the I-95 freeway in Philadelphia. Early in the morning, another Ford Mustang Mach-E hit a stationary Toyota Prius and pushed it into another car, a Hyundai Elantra. Two people from the stationary cars were killed.
The National Road Safety Administration added:
“ODI initiated this initial evaluation to investigate the Ford BlueCruise system equipped in the subject vehicles. This investigation will evaluate the system’s performance of the dynamic driving and driver monitoring task.”
The nighttime nature of the incidents highlighted by NHTSA is an important detail, given that BlueCruise is a camera-based system and its vision may be affected by environmental or weather conditions.
TechCrunch cited Ford’s statement that the automaker is working with NHTSA to support the investigation.