The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced Monday it is upgrading its investigation into 129,222 Ford vehicles equipped with the BlueCruise hands-free driving system. The decision comes after reports of two fatal collisions involving Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles using the technology.
The upgraded probe, now an engineering analysis, will cover 2021–2024 model year vehicles. This step is a prerequisite for the NHTSA’s potential recall decision.
BlueCruise, introduced in 2021, employs a camera-based driver monitoring system to assess attentiveness. The technology operates on 97% of U.S. and Canadian highways that lack intersections and traffic signals. Currently, it is available on select Ford and Lincoln models.
The NHTSA’s investigation was prompted by two fatal incidents last April, where BlueCruise-equipped vehicles collided with stationary cars while traveling over 70 mph on highways during nighttime conditions. Both crashes highlighted potential system limitations in detecting stationary vehicles at highway speeds in low-light scenarios.
The agency will also evaluate drivers’ ability to react to situations that exceed the system’s limitations.
In a parallel effort, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting its own investigations into the two Mustang Mach-E crashes, alongside incidents involving other vehicles, such as a Honda CR-V crash on February 24 in Texas and another accident on March 3 in Philadelphia.
This probe underscores growing scrutiny of advanced driver-assistance technologies and their implications for road safety.
