On April 29, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced it has opened an investigation of two fatal crashes involving Ford's Blue Cruise partially automated driving system, used in Mustang Mach-E vehicles on freeways in nighttime lighting conditions.
The agency says the investigation will evaluate how Blue Cruise performs driving tasks as well as its camera based driver monitoring system.
The probe includes 130,050 2021-2024 Ford Mustang Mach-E vehicles.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which already is investigating the February 24 San Antonio crash, determined in a preliminary report that it was operating on Blue Cruise.
The Texas crash occurred on Interstate 10 in San Antonio, where the NTSB says the Mach E struck the rear of a 1999 Honda CR-V that was stopped in the middle of three lanes around 9:50 p.m., killing its driver.
The second crash involving a Mach E killed two people around 3:20 a.m. March 3 in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia, where the Mach E was in the left lane as it struck a stationary Hyundai Elantra that earlier had collided with a Toyota Prius.
The Mach E hit the Hyundai, pushing it into the rear of the Prius, killing each of those two drivers who were outside of their vehicles at the time.
A police news release on the crash says a criminal investigation is underway and a charge of homicide by motor vehicle while driving under the influence is possible against the 23-year-old woman driving the Mach E.
(Detroit News and other sources on April 29, 2024) (NHTSA report on April 25, 2024)