NTSB to Maintain Listening to on Two Deadly Ford Crashes Involving Driver Help – Cyber Tech

The Nationwide Transportation Security Board will maintain a March 31 listening to to find out the possible reason behind two deadly crashes involving Ford Motor’s hands-free superior driver help system BlueCruise.

Each crashes in 2024 concerned 2022 mannequin yr Ford Mustang Mach-Es working within the firm’s partial automation mode in 2024 rear-end crashes during which the Ford SUVs struck stationary autos at freeway speeds in San Antonio and Philadelphia.

The crashes pose severe questions the restrictions of the system. The NTSB plans to vote on “security suggestions designed to stop comparable crashes sooner or later.”

Since 2025, each the NTSB and Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration have been investigating using BlueCruise to handle questions on system limitations and to judge drivers’ means to reply. BlueCruise is a sophisticated hands-free driving system that operates on 97% of U.S. and Canadian highways with no intersections or visitors indicators.

NHTSA in January 2025 upgraded its investigation to an engineering evaluation.

Ford mentioned BlueCruise is utilized in 17 international locations and in additional than 500 million miles of freeway journey. The automaker mentioned in 2025 that 2.5 million autos have been outfitted with BlueCruise.

“BlueCruise is a comfort function designed in accordance with trade requirements for partial autonomy, and we’ve made considerate, deliberate product improvement and advertising selections to make sure our product is protected and clear to make use of,” Ford mentioned.

Within the San Antonio crash, a Ford on Interstate 10 struck a stationary 1999 Honda CR-V, killing the Honda driver; and within the Philadelphia crash, a Ford on Interstate 95 struck two stationary autos inflicting them to collide with a passing Toyota Corolla and the drivers of the Prius and Elantra have been killed.

The NTSB mentioned in each crashes “no driver-applied or system-initiated braking or steering was recorded within the moments earlier than impression.”

The NTSB has opened a number of investigations lately into superior driver help programs together with Tesla’s Autopilot. In December 2023, electrical automotive maker Tesla agreed to recall 2 million autos to put in new safeguards for its Autopilot driver help system.

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