Ford BlueCruise Issues Lead to Investigation After Deaths Linked to Driver Assistance System: NHTSA

More than 2.5 million Ford and Lincoln vehicles could wind up involved in the investigation into potential problems with the automated driving systems.

Federal officials are investigating the safety of over 120,000 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles, after learning about at least two fatal accidents that may have resulted from issues with the BlueCruise driver assistance technology.

Ford BlueCruise was first introduced in 2021, and is designed to provide drivers with additional safety features, including Lane Centering Assist (LCA), hands-free partial driving automation and a camera monitoring system, which can assess the driver’s attention levels. The program integrates Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) and Pre-Collision Assist (PCA), using camera and radar technologies to detect objects.

Ford also designed the ACC system to avoid stationary objects when the vehicle’s speed is at 62 mph or above. However, limitations have been identified in the system’s ability to detect vehicles under certain conditions, like poor visibility or insufficient lighting.

As a result, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) launched an investigation into potential Ford BlueCruis issues on January 17, after identifying multiple crashes where vehicles using the driver assistance features hit stationary vehicles, resulting in two deaths.

In the two fatal crashes, each vehicle was traveling over 70 mph at night with the hands-free BlueCruise system engaged when it collided with a stationary vehicle. Neither driver applied the brakes nor took evasive action, and neither the BlueCruise nor the Pre-Collision Assist system decelerated the vehicle prior to impact.

On April 15, 2024, NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened a preliminary evaluation into the fatal accidents and sent an information request letter to Ford in June 2024, requiring the company to provide specific information related to crashes, non-crash reports and technical specifications for BlueCruise and other partial driving automation systems.

According to the report (PDF), the ODI has received 32 crash reports, including four involving BlueCruise-equipped vehicles colliding with slowed or stopped vehicles, as well as 2,004 non-crash reports concerning Ford vehicles using driver assistance technologies that failed to detect or respond to stopped or slow-moving vehicles.

The investigation may impact 129,222 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles from the model years 2021 through 2024, which are equipped with Co-Pilot360 Active 2.0 (BlueCruise). However, Ford indicates that there are another 2.5 million Ford and Lincoln vehicles equipped with the company’s BlueCruise automation systems, which also fall within the scope of ODI’s request.

The investigation is ongoing, with an engineering analysis opened to examine the system’s limitations in detecting stationary vehicles at highway speeds and at night, and to assess the driver’s ability to respond to situations beyond the system’s capabilities.

Self-Driving Technology Investigations

Ford’s BlueCruise driver assistance system is not the only automated driving feature that is currently under investigation by NHTSA.

Earlier this month, federal regulators initiated a Tesla “Smart Summon” feature investigation after 16 accidents were caused by the vehicles’ full-self-driving systems failing to detect obstacles, which resulted in collisions that posed risks of property damage and bodily injury.

In addition, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed against Tesla late last year, claiming that the company misrepresented the safety of its Autopilot feature. The lawsuit claimed that despite Tesla advertising Autopilot as a safe and fully autonomous driving system, its shortcomings led to a fatal accident in which a Tesla collided with a parked emergency vehicle.

Due to the numerous potential defects in self-driving features, NHTSA announced an update to NHTSA 5-star safety ratings to include advanced driver assist technology in November 2024, which aims to accelerate the adoption of technologies that reduce the frequency and severity of crashes, while also helping consumers make more informed decisions.