By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, March 11 (Reuters) – The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a March 31 hearing to determine the probable cause of two fatal crashes involving Ford Motor’s hands-free advanced driver assistance system BlueCruise.
Both crashes in 2024 involved 2022 model year Ford Mustang Mach-Es operating in the company’s partial automation mode in 2024 rear-end crashes in which the Ford SUVs struck stationary vehicles at highway speeds in San Antonio and Philadelphia.
The crashes pose serious questions the limitations of the system. The NTSB plans to vote on “safety recommendations designed to prevent similar crashes in the future.”
Since 2025, both the NTSB and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have been investigating the use of BlueCruise to address questions about system limitations and to evaluate drivers’ ability to respond. BlueCruise is an advanced hands-free driving system that operates on 97% of U.S. and Canadian highways with no intersections or traffic signals.
NHTSA in January 2025 upgraded its investigation to an engineering analysis.
Ford said BlueCruise is used in 17 countries and in more than 500 million miles of highway travel. The automaker said in 2025 that 2.5 million vehicles were equipped with BlueCruise.
“BlueCruise is a convenience feature designed in accordance with industry standards for partial autonomy, and we’ve made thoughtful, deliberate product development and marketing choices to ensure our product is safe and clear to use,” Ford said.
In the San Antonio crash, a Ford on Interstate 10 struck a stationary 1999 Honda CR-V, killing the Honda driver; and in the Philadelphia crash, a Ford on Interstate 95 struck two stationary vehicles causing them to collide with a passing Toyota Corolla and the drivers of the Prius and Elantra were killed.
The NTSB said in both crashes “no driver-applied or system-initiated braking or steering was recorded in the moments before impact.”
The NTSB has opened several investigations in recent years into advanced driver assistance systems including Tesla’s Autopilot. In December 2023, electric car maker Tesla agreed to recall 2 million vehicles to install new safeguards for its Autopilot driver assistance system.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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