OAN’s James Meyers
1:10 PM – Monday, April 29, 2024
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has begun an investigation into Ford Motor’s hands-free driving technology called “BlueCruise” that comes equipped in vehicles. Reportedly, the tech has prompted at least two accidents involving Mustang Mach-E SUVs hitting parked cars.
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The announcement on Monday comes as the agency has begun evaluating 130,000 2021-2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles as the first step to determine whether the vehicles pose an unreasonable risk to safety, according to the NHTSA.
The NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigations said that it received two complaints of Mustang Mach-E vehicles colliding with stationary cars, with regulators verifying that the technology BlueCruise was enabled in both vehicles directly prior to the crashes.
Both collisions occurred during the night and each resulted in at least one fatality, regulators said.
“We are working with NHTSA to support its investigation,” a Ford spokesperson said.
The National Transportation Safety Board has opened separate investigations into the Mach-E crashes, which included a February 24th crash of a Ford Mustang Mach-E using BlueCruise, which struck the rear of a stationary Honda CR-V on Interstate Highway 10 in San Antonio, Texas, killing the 56-year-old Honda driver.
Meanwhile, the NTSB is also investigating a March 3rd crash in Philadelphia involving a Ford Mach-E, the other car crash that was cited by the NHTSA.
NHTSA previously opened special crash investigations into both fatal incidents, with both occurring during “nighttime lighting conditions,” the agency said.
Ford offers BlueCruise, which is an advanced hands-free driving system that operates on almost 100% of U.S. and Canadian highways with no intersections or traffic signals. The system is based on a driver monitoring system to determine driver attentiveness.
The agency said that the investigation will evaluate the system’s performance on the dynamic driving tasks and driver monitoring.
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