Federal security regulators have opened an investigation into Ford’s hands-free driver help system, BlueCruise, after it was lively throughout two recent crashes into stationary autos that killed a number of folks.
The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration’s Workplace of Defects Investigation (ODI) mentioned Monday that it has confirmed BlueCruise was lively in each crashes. One occurred in February in Texas, and the opposite occurred in early April in Pennsylvania. They’re the first-known fatalities ensuing from crashes involving using BlueCruise.
The investigation into the 2 crashes ratchets up the scrutiny on BlueCruise, which is presently out there on the Mustang Mach-E, and sure Ford F-150s (together with the Lightning), Explorers, and Expeditions. The Nationwide Transportation Security Board has already opened an investigation into the Texas crash. Ford mentioned in an announcement that it’s “working with NHTSA to support its investigation.”
The brand new probe comes simply days after ODI closed its most high-profile driver-assistance investigation to date into Tesla’s Autopilot. The security company initially opened that probe in 2021 after a number of studies of Teslas crashing into stationary emergency autos whereas the drivers had been utilizing Autopilot. In closing the investigation, ODI mentioned final week that it decided a “critical safety gap between drivers’ expectations of [Autopilot’s] operating capabilities and the system’s true capabilities” created “foreseeable misuse and avoidable crashes.”
Ford introduced BlueCruise in 2021. It’s only out there on pre-mapped highways, and Ford pairs it with a camera-based driver monitoring system that checks whether or not drivers’ eyes are nonetheless on the street when the system is lively. These signify a lot tighter constraints on the system than Tesla places on using Autopilot. However whereas it’s highly-rated by some, together with Consumer Reports, the latest crashes and ensuing investigations counsel there could also be a extra basic drawback with superior driver help methods than a few of these corporations are prepared to confess.
This story has been up to date to incorporate a response from Ford.
