Ford's BlueCruise Under Scrutiny After Fatal Crash

by Chris Teague

Published: March 18th, 2024

ford s bluecruise under scrutiny after fatal crash

Tesla’s Autopilot and Full-Self Driving tech have been under scrutiny for a while now over their repeated failure to stop collisions and monitor driver behavior. Now, it’s Ford’s turn under the spotlight with its BlueCruise system. The NTSB said it wants to find out if the system was in use when a Mustang Mach-E was involved in a deadly crash in San Antonio, Texas.

The Mach-E ran into a Honda CR-V stopped in a travel lane on Interstate 10, killing its driver, a 56-year-old man. Ford said it reported the incident to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as soon as it became aware of the crash and noted that it will cooperate fully with any investigation.

BlueCruise is advertised as a hands-free system, but it’s only Level 2 autonomy meaning the car can’t drive itself without an attentive human behind the wheel ready to take complete control at any time. The system works on limited-access highways, like Interstate 10, across North America, and owners pay a subscription fee for access to the feature.

This story comes shortly after the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s new research hit the streets, which found that many driver assistance functions, including BlueCruise, fail to adequately monitor driver behavior and give enough feedback when something goes wrong. A spokesperson for the IIHS said that while many drivers feel the features make their long drives easier, there’s very little evidence that they make the trip safer.

The IIHS rated BlueCruise Poor in the new tests, where it is joined by the Tesla Model 3, Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Genesis G90, and Volvo S90. Only the Lexus LS earned an Acceptable score in the updated tests.

[Image: Ford]

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Chris Teague

Chris grew up in, under, and around cars, but took the long way around to becoming an automotive writer. After a career in technology consulting and a trip through business school, Chris began writing about the automotive industry as a way to reconnect with his passion and get behind the wheel of a new car every week. He focuses on taking complex industry stories and making them digestible by any reader. Just don’t expect him to stay away from high-mileage Porsches.

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4 of 14 comments

CoastieLenn on Mar 18, 2024

For those that care to read the details of the crash NOT included in this article but published elsewhere- this happened at nearly 10pm when the CRV was stopped in the center lane of travel, lights off, with the driver remaining in the car. Not only is it not known if Blue Cruise was being used, it would have been a nightmare for most alert human drivers to mitigate that driving the 70+mph speed limit on many sections of I-10 in Texas, much less an AV system.

2 Reply
- D on Mar 18, 2024
  
  There are street lights in that area so an alert driver could have seen the CRV sitting there. Still, nobody expects something like that. Might take precious time to realize what it was. Or maybe cars in front of the Mustang swerved out of the way and the driver wasn't paying attention or didn't understand the emergency. Apparently AEB doesn't work well at freeway speeds. But the Mustang must have braked some at least, otherwise its driver might have died too.
  
  1
Kosmo on Mar 19, 2024

Tragic. Where in the name of all that is holy did anybody get the idea that self-driving cars were a good idea? I get the desire for lane-keeping, and use it myself, occasionally, but I don't even like to look across the car at my passenger while driving, let along relinquish complete control.

Like Reply
- SCE to AUX on Mar 19, 2024
  
  If you view transportation as merely transactional, then AVs make sense - they become almost like private trains, guided to their destination.
  But driving is not transactional, but relational. Drivers have to constantly negotiate around various random obstacles and distractions, and computers aren't so great at that.
  
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