NHTSA opens investigation into Ford's hands-free driving tech after multiple deaths
April 29 (UPI) -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday said it was opening an investigation into Ford Motor Company's BlueCruise driver-assisted technology after multiple fatalities had been linked to the software's use.
In a report dated April 25, the NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation said they had "opened this Preliminary Evaluation to investigate the Ford BlueCruise system equipped on the subject vehicles."
"This investigation will evaluate the system's performance of the dynamic driving task and driver monitoring," it read.
On Monday morning, Ford told TechCrunch that the car company is "working with NHTSA to support its investigation."
Two fatal crashes so far in 2024 -- one in San Antonio, Texas, and the other in Philadelphia, Penn., -- are under investigation by the NHTSB.
The driverless technology was first introduced by Ford in 2021 and enables a hands-free driving experience on pre-mapped highways and other roads. It's also available in some Lincoln-made vehicles.
The NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation pointed to the Ford Mustang Mach-E's equipped with the Co-Pilot360 Active 2.0 software that were made in cars from 2021-2024, which were involved in the fatal crashes.
The report said that vehicles had managed to hit stationary objects including stopped vehicles.
"Both collisions occurred during nighttime lighting conditions, and each incident resulted in at least one fatality," it said.
In February, Ford CEO Jim Farley indicated that BlueCruise is still a very profitable venture for the company, calling it "some awesome tech."
"BlueCruise just passed 150 million miles of hand-free use, but more importantly, the growth is up 25 percent quarter-over-quarter, and the gross margins for BlueCruise are at 70-plus percent," Farley told Ford Authority.
Last July, Farley had announced on social media the BlueCruise 1.3 rollout which started that summer in Mustang Mach-E's.
"Our ADAS team is making the hands-free highway driving experience even better!" he put on X.
The NHTSA has been busy in recent weeks and months.
Just days ago, the agency had closed an investigation into the Autopilot feature on certain Tesla models, while at the same time opening a new probe into the car maker's fix of the problem.
That came after December's Tesla recall of over 2 million vehicles possibly over risk of Autosteer crashes. In early April, they were investigating a Ford recall of 42,000 SUVs for fuel injector leak that were known to possibly cause fire.
