Uh-Oh, Ford’s Mach-E Is Under Investigation for Hands-Free Driving Technology

There have been a number of accidents involving Ford’s flagship EV, the Mach-E.  Two of the accidents were fatal and both happened when the driver was using the company’s BlueCruise hands free driving technology. Now it would appear that Americalands’ road safety people, the NHSTA, are taking the matter a little more seriously

The accidents were enough for the NHTSA to launch a probe as far back as last April but with more accidents piling-up (pun intended) the previous probe will be escalated to an ‘engineering analysis’ on vehicles manufactured between 2021 and 2024.

BlueCruise has been with us since 2021 and is only available on a few Fords and Lincolns. Under the road rules in the USA there needs to be an engineering analysis prior to a recall.

Like most of the self-driving tech we are now told is the future of motoring, the BlueCruise utilises a camera system to monitor driver attention to the road and can be deployed on roads in the US, and for that matter Canada, where there are no intersections or traffic lights.

We’ve highlighted previously the result of an investigation that pointed to the flaws of Tesla’s vehicles having the same issues with camera systems.

The recent accidents that have given cause for concern are being investigated by the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) as well and actually happened at the start of 2024. According to reports the Mach-E’s involved were travelling at over 70mph (slightly over 110kph) at night when they collided with stationary vehicles.

So it would appear that the BlueCruise system has some limitations when it comes to seeing stopped vehicles at night whilst travelling above 110kph. The NHSTA say that they will investigate these limitations and evaluate drivers ability to respond. Perhaps the better idea would be to drive yourself, or am I being a luddite?