NHTSA Orders Engineering Analysis Of Ford BlueCruise After Crashes

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has upgraded its investigation into Ford’s BlueCruise driver-assist system.

Significantly, NHTSA has moved to an engineering analysis after the preliminary findings suggested potential flaws in the technology.

The initial inquiry was launched in the spring of 2024 after multiple crash reports, including two fatal accidents, linked to the BlueCruise system. This feature allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel for extended periods, provided a camera ensures they remain attentive. Both fatal crashes occurred at night, with the vehicles traveling over 70 mph and colliding with stationary vehicles while BlueCruise was engaged.

NHTSA's findings indicate that BlueCruise and the less advanced Lane Centering Assist (LCA) system may struggle to detect stationary vehicles when operating at freeway speeds, particularly under low-light or low-visibility conditions.

Investigators call out Ford's decision to program its adaptive cruise control (ACC) to disregard stationary objects at speeds over 62 mph in an effort to minimize false alarms. However, this programming may compromise the system's ability to respond to actual obstacles.

The system's reliance on camera and radar sensors appears to falter in low-light or poor visibility scenarios.

Two additional non-fatal crashes involved other Ford models equipped with LCA, and numerous near-miss incidents have been reported where adaptive cruise control failed to respond.

In such cases, the Pre-Collision Assist (PCA) system often had to intervene, or drivers were forced into emergency manual braking.

If NHTSA determines that BlueCruise poses a significant risk, Ford could face a recall affecting nearly 130,000 Mach-E models from the 2021–2024 model years. For now, drivers of affected vehicles are not being advised to stop using BlueCruise. Increased regulatory scrutiny could lead to changes in how the system operates—or a major recall.

Ford recently rolled out BlueCruise 1.5 for the 2025 Mach-E, which includes automatic lane-changing capabilities. It’s unclear if this update addresses the issues under investigation.

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