US safety regulators expand Ford hands-free driving tech investigation

A U.S. federal safety regulator has “upgraded” its investigation into Ford’s hands-free advanced driver assistance system known as BlueCruise — a required step before a recall can be issued.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation launched a probe into Ford BlueCruise last April after the agency confirmed the system was active in Ford Mustang Mach E vehicles involved in two fatal crashes. In both instances, the Mustang Mach E cars hit stationary vehicles.

NHTSA issued a notice this week that it has upgraded the investigation to an engineering analysis. This means the agency will dig deeper into BlueCruise and its potential limitations, which includes vehicle evaluations, reviewing additional technical information, and performing additional analysis of related crashes and non-crash reports.

An estimated 129,222 Ford Mustang Mach E vehicles are equipped with BlueCruise, according to the regulator. Ford did not respond to a request for comment. (TechCrunch will update the article if that changes.)

The agency said its initial investigation found BlueCruise has limitations in the “detection of stationary vehicles in certain conditions.” Those limitations include the potential to falsely detect stationary objects at long distances when the Ford vehicle is traveling at or above 62 miles per hour.

“Additionally, system performance may be limited when there is poor visibility due to insufficient illumination,” NHTSA said.

Ford debuted BlueCruise in 2021 on the 2021 F-150 pickup truck and certain 2021 Mustang Mach-E models. The hands-free feature uses cameras, radar sensors, and software to provide a combination of adaptive cruise control, lane centering, and speed-sign recognition. BlueCruise and competitor GM’s Super Cruise systems are both hands-free, although an in-cabin camera monitors drivers to ensure their eyes are on the road.

These systems are considered competitors to Tesla Autopilot, which still requires the driver’s hands to remain on the wheel. Autopilot and the upgraded Tesla Full Self-Driving software are still considered less constrained than Ford BlueCruise, which only works on certain pre-mapped highways.

Last October, NHTSA also opened an investigation into Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software after four reported crashes in low-visibility situations — including one where a pedestrian was killed. That investigation is ongoing.