Federal security regulators have opened an investigation into Ford’s hands-free driver help system, BlueCruise, after it was lively throughout two current crashes into stationary autos that killed a number of folks.
The Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration’s Workplace of Defects Investigation (ODI) stated Monday that it has confirmed BlueCruise was lively in each crashes. One came about in February in Texas, and the opposite occurred in early April in Pennsylvania. They’re the first-known fatalities ensuing from crashes involving using BlueCruise.
The investigation into the 2 crashes ratchets up the scrutiny on BlueCruise, which is at present out there on the Mustang Mach-E, and sure Ford F-150s (together with the Lightning), Explorers, and Expeditions. The Nationwide Transportation Security Board has already opened an investigation into the Texas crash. Ford didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The brand new probe comes simply days after ODI closed its most high-profile driver-assistance investigation to this point into Tesla’s Autopilot. The security company initially opened that probe in 2021 after a number of experiences of Teslas crashing into stationary emergency autos whereas the drivers have been utilizing Autopilot. In closing the investigation, ODI stated final week that it decided a “essential security hole between drivers’ expectations of [Autopilot’s] working capabilities and the system’s true capabilities” created “foreseeable misuse and avoidable crashes.”
Ford introduced BlueCruise in 2021. It’s only out there on pre-mapped highways, and Ford pairs it with a camera-based driver monitoring system that checks whether or not drivers’ eyes are nonetheless on the highway when the system is lively. These characterize a lot tighter constraints on the system than Tesla places on using Autopilot. However whereas it’s highly-rated by some, together with Client Studies, the current crashes and ensuing investigations recommend there could also be a extra elementary downside with superior driver help methods than a few of these firms are keen to confess.
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