- Two separate crashes involving BlueCruise in two Ford Mustang Mach-Es prompted the probe
- Investigation uncovered limitations with the Level 2 ADAS at nighttime and at speeds above 70 mph
- Other Ford and Lincoln models with active lane control are being scrutinized
Ford’s BlueCruise is the latest limited hands-free driving system to come under intense federal scrutiny by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to a Reuters report published Monday.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in April 2024 after two separate collisions involving the Ford Mustang Mach-E resulted in two fatalities. In both instances, BlueCruise was active and the Mustang Mach-E rammed into immobilized or stationary cars on interstates at nighttime. In the April crash, a Honda CR-V was stopped without hazards or lights on in a lane.
Other drivers swerved to miss it, Reuters reported. The Mach-E did not, and the driver of the stalled CR-V was killed. In another fatal crash in March in Philadelphia, the Mach-E hit two stopped vehicles, also in a lane instead of off on the shoulder. The drivers of both of those vehicles were fatally struck outside of their cars.
In both cases, the Mach-Es were traveling above 70 mph and the drivers did not apply the brakes or take evasive steering action. The initial investigation covered the 2021-2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E, but the expanded investigation could include many more Ford and Lincoln vehicles.
Ford estimates BlueCruise can be operated on 97% of limited access highways in the U.S. and Canada. The investigation uncovered that Ford designed adaptive cruise control, the part of the system that detects traffic ahead and maintains a gap between that traffic, to inhibit responses from stationary objects and false detection when the test car is traveling above 62 mph.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has faulted the efficacy of automatic emergency braking at highway speeds and found that such limited hands-free safety systems are not safety systems but mere conveniences, like heated seats.
The NHTSA appears to be reaching similar conclusions, reactively. The NHTSA has investigated Tesla and its mislabeled “Full Self-Driving” system multiple times for multiple reasons, resulting in a Dec. 2023 recall of more than 2 million cars equipped with the hardware and software.
Unlike Tesla, Ford’s system uses a driver-monitor camera to ensure the driver is paying attention or at least has their head and eyes facing the road. The NHTSA now requires Ford to show a deeper engineering analysis to assess system limitations and evaluate if drivers have enough time to take over given the limitations of these systems.
Such an analysis often precedes a recall. The probe could encompass more than 2.5 million Ford and Lincoln vehicles from the 2019 model year to now equipped with active lane control, or what Ford calls Lane Centering Assist that is used in concert with adaptive cruise control to keep a vehicle in its lane.
Like Tesla, Ford has run afoul of the NHTSA recently. In Nov. 2024, the NHTSA fined Ford $165 million for failing to comply with a rearview camera recall that nearly every major automaker has had to deal with. It was the second largest penalty imposed by the NHTSA, following only the Takata airbag debacle.
Reminder: There are no self-driving cars sold today.