After learning of two incidents where Mustang Mach-E cars collided with stationary vehicles, US regulators have launched a preliminary investigation into Ford Motor's (F.US) autonomous driving technology BlueCruise.
The Zhitong Finance App learned that the US Highway Traffic Safety Administration Defect Investigation Office (ODI) said on Monday that it has conducted a preliminary investigation into Ford Motor's (F.US) autonomous driving technology BlueCruise after learning about two incidents where Mustang Mach-E cars collided with stationary vehicles. BlueCruise provides some autonomous driving features, but requires the driver to actively monitor its performance.
According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, both collisions occurred under “nighttime lighting conditions,” and each accident caused at least one death.
ODI's initial investigation into these two accidents confirmed that BlueCruise was activated before each vehicle collided.
BlueCruise is only used on certain roads and uses a camera-based driver monitoring system to determine driver attention. NHTSA said the investigation will evaluate the system's performance in dynamic driving tasks and driver monitoring.
Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.