US safety regulators are widening the investigation into Ford’s hands-free driving technology

A US federal safety regulator has “updated” its investigation into Ford’s advanced driver assistance system, known as BlueCruise – a necessary step before a recall can be issued.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defect Investigation launched a probe in Ford BlueCruise last April after the agency confirmed the system was active in the Ford Mustang Mach E vehicles involved in two fatal crashes. In both cases, Mustang Mach E cars hit stationary vehicles.

NHTSA issued a notice this week which upgraded the investigation to an engineering analysis. This means the agency will dig deeper into BlueCruise and its potential limitations, which includes vehicle evaluations, reviewing additional technical information, and performing additional analyzes of related crashes and non-crash reports.

An estimated 129,222 Ford Mustang Mach E vehicles are equipped with BlueCruise, according to the regulator. Ford did not respond to a request for comment. (TechCrunch will update the article if it changes.)

The agency said its initial investigation found BlueCruise has limitations in “stationary vehicle detection under certain conditions.” These limitations include the potential to falsely detect stationary objects at long distances when the Ford vehicle is traveling at or above 62 miles per hour.

“Additionally, system performance may be limited when there is poor visibility due to insufficient lighting,” NHTSA said.

Ford debuted BlueCruise in 2021 on the 2021 F-150 pickup truck and some 2021 Mustang Mach-E models. The hands-free feature uses cameras, radar sensors and software to provide a combination of adaptive cruise control, lane centering and road sign recognition speed BlueCruise and competitors GM’s Super Cruise The systems are both hands-free, although an in-cab camera monitors drivers to make sure their eyes are on the road.

These systems are considered competitors of Tesla Autopilot, which still need the driver’s hands to stay on the wheel. Autopilot and the updated Tesla Full Self-Driving software are still considered less limited than Ford BlueCruise, which only works on certain pre-mapped highways.

Last October, NHTSA also opened an investigation in Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software after four reported crashes in low visibility situations – including one where a pedestrian was killed. That investigation is ongoing.