The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday found that Ford's BlueCruise hands‑free system failed to keep drivers attentive in two fatal 2024 crashes and urged Ford to strengthen driver monitoring and curb excessive speeding.
Both crashes involved 2022 Mustang Mach‑E vehicles striking stationary cars: a February I‑10 San Antonio crash killed a Honda driver, and a March I‑95 Philadelphia crash killed two drivers. Investigators said one Ford driver was looking at the infotainment display, the other was intoxicated and using a phone, and Ford's BlueCruise did not brake or steer to avoid either collision.
NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the probe shows an urgent need for stronger safety standards and oversight and recommended requiring in‑vehicle crash data recording for hands‑free systems. The NTSB also found BlueCruise's monitoring ineffective, that drivers could disable Ford's automatic emergency braking in hands‑free mode and set adaptive cruise well above speed limits, and said a full report is due soon.
Read the full article at jalopnik.com.
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