The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently introduced a new ratings program evaluating partial driving automation systems, which is intended to prompt automakers to incorporate better safeguards into those same systems. The results, as one might imagine, weren’t exactly great, as just one of 14 systems tested earned a rating of acceptable, two were rated marginal, and the rest – including Ford’s BlueCruise feature – fell in the poor category. However, it wasn’t alone, as Ford adaptive cruise control also ranked poorly in this same testing.
In its new evaluation and ratings program, the IIHS looked at a handful of categories – driver monitoring, attention reminders, emergency procedures, and other aspects of system design, after which it assigned a rating of good, acceptable, marginal, or poor for those safeguards.
To receive a good score in these categories, systems must monitor the driver’s gaze and hand position, use multiple types of rapidly escalating alerts to get the driver’s attention, utilize fail-safe procedures to slow the vehicle, notify the manufacturer, and keep automation off limits for the remainder of a drive, automated lane changes must be initiated or confirmed by the driver, adaptive cruise control cannot automatically resume after a lengthy stop or if the driver is not looking at the road, lane centering can’t discourage steering input from the driver, automation features cannot be used when the seat belt is unfastened, and automation features cannot be used with automatic emergency braking or lane departure prevention/warning disabled.
For this particular test, the IIHS evaluated Ford Adaptive Cruise Control with Stop & Go and Lane Centering Assist in the Ford Mustang Mach-E, specifically, and it wound up receiving scores of good in attention reminders, lane change, ACC resume, and cooperative steering, acceptable in driver monitoring, marginal in emergency procedures, and poor in safety features, giving it a poor overall score. Regardless, the purpose of this test wasn’t just to harp on these shortcomings, but rather, to prompt automakers to improve them and make them safer for the consumers that use them.
“These results are worrying, considering how quickly vehicles with these partial automation systems are hitting our roadways,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “But there’s a silver lining if you look at the performance of the group as a whole. No single system did well across the board, but in each category at least one system performed well. That means the fixes are readily available and, in some cases, may be accomplished with nothing more than a simple software update.”
We’ll have more on Ford adaptive cruise control soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for continuous Ford news coverage.
Comment
Getting used to Blue Cruise in 23 Lincoln Corsair. It does a decent job. Around here it struggles with the fact that side lines at exits follow the exit and there is no dashed paint to show the extra exit land. System shuts drops out quickly. Ergo you have to pay as much attention as if you were only using ACC. It certainly is not worth the $800/yr Ford wants to bill users once the intro period is over.