Throughout the course of last year, a pair of crashes involving Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free highway driving assist feature prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to look into the matter. Both of those accidents involved Ford Mustang Mach-E crossovers and resulted in fatalities, unfortunately, highlighting a potential problem impacting not only BlueCruise, but also, similar features such as Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self- Driving (FSD) systems that also prompted an NHTSA investigation. Now, that same agency has opened an official query into this matter.
Last April, the NHTSA opened a preliminary analysis of Ford’s BlueCruise system following the aforementioned fatal crashes, but just closed it while subsequently opening an engineering investigation. The new investigation pertains to 129,222 2021-2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E crossovers, as well as one specific problem – in some cases, those vehicles have crashed into stationary vehicles while BlueCruise is activated.
During the course of its initial investigation, the NHTSA and Ford discovered that there are “limitations in the detection of stationary vehicles in certain conditions,” which seems to be happening at certain speeds as well. “Due to the potential for false detection of stationary objects at long distances, Ford designed ACC to inhibit any response to reported stationary objects when the subject vehicle’s approach speed is at or above 62 mph,” the NHTSA noted. “Additionally, system performance may be limited when there is poor visibility due to insufficient illumination.”
Thus, the NHTSA has opened this engineering analysis to take a deeper dive into the problem. In the meantime, another fatal crash that occurred in a Mustang Mach-E with BlueCruise activated last year resulted in the driver – a 23-year-old student – facing some serious legal repercussions. In fact, she’s facing multiple charges including homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence and involuntary manslaughter, though It’s unclear if those charges will stick, given the nature of current laws.
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