Feds question Ford in hands-free driving investigation
The top federal vehicle safety regulator has sent Ford an exhaustive list of questions about its hands-free driver-assistance system known as BlueCruise. It’s the latest development in an investigation that started more than one year ago following two fatal crashes involving the software.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) sent a letter to Ford on June 18 that contains 25 questions. Many of them are basic, such as asking Ford for a detailed list of vehicles that have been equipped with BlueCruise. But the NHTSA also wants internal Ford documents related to the crashes that sparked the probe, the development of BlueCruise, descriptions of any changes made to the software, and much more.
It’s the first “information request” that the NHTSA has sent Ford since it upgraded the investigation in January to a level known as an “engineering analysis.” That progression is a required step before NHTSA can ask Ford to issue a recall.
A Ford spokesperson told TechCrunch the company is working with the NHTSA to support this investigation.
The ODI opened the investigation in April 2024 after two fatal crashes. In each of those incidents, the drivers were using BlueCruise when they crashed into vehicles that were stationary. They were the first known fatalities resulting from crashes involving the use of BlueCruise.
Ford only allows drivers to use BlueCruise on pre-mapped highways. The hands-free system uses cameras, radar sensors, and software to handle steering, speed, and braking on certain highways. The software is paired with an in-cabin camera with an eye-tracking system that is supposed to ensure drivers are paying attention to the road ahead. The system, which costs $495 a year or $2,495 as a one-time purchase, is available in the Ford Explorer, Ford Expedition, Ford F-150 truck, and the all-electric Ford Mustang Mach-E.
The crashes in early 2024 raised the question of how capable Ford’s system is at recognizing stationary objects — a problem that has plagued Tesla’s own driver-assistance software for years.
The NHTSA said in January, when it upgraded the investigation, that it has discovered “limitations in the detection of stationary vehicles in certain conditions” and that BlueCruise’s performance “may be limited when there is poor visibility due to insufficient illumination.” (Both fatal crashes occurred at night.)
In the new letter, the NHTSA has asked Ford for more information about the BlueCruise software’s “logic and/or algorithms used in the detection and classification of hazards in front of” the vehicle.
Ford has until August 6 to submit its responses to the 25 questions or face civil penalties.
