The ongoing investigation by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Office of Defects Investigationhas now expanded on its probe against Ford's BlueCruise self-driving technology. This came after the NHTSA first opened an investigation into Ford's advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) used in Mustang Mach E electric cars which was involved in multiple fatal accidents.
With this deeper probe into Ford's BlueCruise, the federal agency will look more into reports and vehicle evaluations, looking towards its crashes and other issues that may pose threats to drivers and public roads.
Ford's BlueCruise: NHTSA Expands Investigation on Tech
The NHTSA released a new notice this week that 'upgraded' its investigation into Ford's BlueCruise technology where the agency would perform an 'engineering analysis' of the self-driving feature. With this, NHTSA would evaluate more of BlueCruise's capabilities and limitations regarding its available assisted driving features for users, with this only the first step in its probe.
It was reported by TechCrunch that the NHTSA will also look into the vehicle evaluations behind the BlueCruise technology, review the additional technological information, and analyze the related crashes and non-crash reports behind the self-driving feature.
The NHTSA also regarded that at present, a total of 129,222 Ford Mustang Mach E are equipped with the BlueCruise technology, with Ford already sending word that it supports the agency's investigation into their self-driving tech and vehicles.
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Mustang Mach E Fatal Accidents Prompted Probe
The latest investigation by the NHTSA follows the recent fatal incidents involving Ford's Mustang Mach E which uses the BlueCruise self-driving technology when the said accidents happened. It was revealed that there were two fatal crashes involving the Mustang Mach E and BlueCruise, and both were similar events as they crashed into stationary vehicles.
Additionally, the NHTSA is now looking into the possibility that Ford's BlueCruise may fail to detect stationary objects at long distances when it is driving at or over 62 miles per hour, or when visibility is low.
BlueCruise: The Self-Driving Tech From Ford
Over the past years, Ford was fairly new to the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) race with its BlueCruise technology, but it was already given unique features for drivers to enjoy for their needs. Apart from offering to take the wheel from drivers in highway settings to accelerate and brake depending on the traffic condition, Ford gave it a feature of automatic lane-changing capabilities that further improved the tech.
That being said, one of its biggest upgrades was touted by the renowned Dearborn, Michigan-based car giant, with its CEO Jim Farley revealing that the company is close to achieving Level 3 Autonomy. While Level 3 is still a way to go, the company is already celebrating the fact that there are significant developments in its ADAS, but will not yet be available for the public to freely use.
Later in 2024, Ford released BlueCruise's version 1.4 which offered a longer hands-free mode for drivers that can take over the wheel better than before thanks to its latest 'motion controller' technology. Despite the massive advancements that Ford has developed for BlueCruise, there are still controversies surrounding it with the two identical accidents with the Mustang Mach E which the NHTSA wants to look deeper into and determine if the self-driving technology is really at fault.
