Two drivers involved in a fatal 2024 crash while using Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving system were likely distracted shortly before the crash, according to new information released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
The safety board released documents on each crash and announced it would hold a public hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 31 to discuss its findings and likely issue recommendations to Ford. The NTSB is an independent federal agency that investigates transportation accidents but does not regulate the industry. The agency plans to release its final report within a few weeks after the March 31 hearing.
This accident triggered an investigation not only by the NTSB but also by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Safety regulator NHTSA announced in early 2025 that it had upgraded the probe after determining that BlueCruise had limitations in “detecting stationary vehicles under certain conditions.” Regulators sent Ford an exhaustive list of questions as part of its investigation in June 2025, and the company responded in August. Investigation is ongoing.
Through all of this, Ford has maintained that BlueCruise is a “convenience feature” and that drivers must be ready to take control of their vehicle at all times. It also warns drivers that BlueCruise is “not a collision warning or avoidance system.” New Ford vehicle buyers can purchase BlueCruise for a one-time fee of $2,495 or an annual subscription of $495, the company said.
That said, the NTSB investigation and hearings later this month will shine an additional spotlight on how companies like Ford communicate what purpose these driver-assistance systems are supposed to serve and how to ensure they’re used properly.
Distracted driving has also been a topic of various studies on other popular driver-assistance systems, including Tesla’s now-defunct Autopilot and fully self-driving (supervised) software. Distracted driving was a particular focus of the NTSB’s previous investigation into Autopilot-related deaths in 2018.
“This accident demonstrated an overreliance on technology, distraction, lack of policies prohibiting cell phone use while driving, and infrastructure failures that combined to lead to this tragic loss,” NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at the time, referring to the 2018 accident.
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first crash
The Blue Cruise crash occurred in early 2024. The first accident occurred in San Antonio, Texas, in February of the same year. The driver of a 2022 Ford Mustang Mach-E was traveling in the center lane of Interstate 10 when he crashed into a stopped 1999 Honda CR-V at approximately 114 mph. The driver of the Ford was using BlueCruise shortly before the crash occurred at 9:48 p.m. local time. The driver of the Ford suffered minor injuries, but the driver of the Honda died from injuries sustained in the crash.
New information released by the NTSB on Wednesday shows that Ford’s camera-based driver monitoring system recorded that the driver was looking at the main infotainment screen for five seconds before the crash. Driver monitoring systems detected him looking at the road for only a few seconds, about 3.6 seconds before the crash and again about 1.6 seconds before the crash. He received two visual and audible warnings to be careful of the road 30 seconds before impact, but did not brake before impact.
The driver told San Antonio police he was using the car’s navigation system to get to a charging station, documents said. One of the reports states: “He may have been looking at the center screen console as directions to the charging station were displayed there.”
Based on information released Wednesday, it’s possible he was nodding off before the crash, but it’s nearly impossible to say for sure. Ford’s system captured a still image of the driver two seconds before the crash, and the NTSB said it shows the driver “sitting upright, facing forward, with his head resting (or nearly resting) on the headrest, and turned slightly to the right.” The driver was interviewed by police and hired a lawyer, but the lawyer refused to speak with the NTSB.
second crash
The second fatal Blue Cruise accident occurred in Philadelphia in March 2024. The driver of a 2022 Mach-E was traveling on Interstate 95 at 3:16 a.m. local time when he collided with a 2012 Hyundai Elantra that was stopped on the left side of the road. The Elantra collided with a 2006 Toyota Prius that had stopped in front of it.
The two drivers, who are friends, had stopped for unknown reasons and the Prius driver got out of his car and stood to the left of the Elantra. Both drivers of the Elantra and Prius were killed, and the driver of the Mach-E suffered minor injuries.
Local police said the driver of the Mach-E, a 23-year-old woman named Dimple Patel, was under the influence of alcohol at the time. In late 2024, she was charged with DUI murder. She was traveling at about 112 mph before the collision, even though she was in a construction zone with a 45 mph speed limit. Patel’s attorney, Zach Goldstein, told TechCrunch on Wednesday that the lawsuit is still pending and no trial date has been set.
New NTSB documents show Patel’s car’s driver monitoring system recorded that her eyes were on the “road” for a full five seconds before the crash. But in a photo taken two seconds before the crash, she appears to be holding her phone above the steering wheel, almost completely out of sight of driver monitoring systems.
Ford did not immediately respond to questions about whether it was aware of this potential shortfall in its driver monitoring systems or whether it had taken any steps to alleviate it.
What about automatic emergency braking?
In addition to BlueCruise, modern Ford vehicles are equipped with Forward Collision Warning (FCW) systems and Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB).
In addition to warning that BlueCruise is “not a collision warning or avoidance system,” Ford also warns owners in the fine print that FCW and AEB are “auxiliary” and “driver assistance” features and “are not intended to replace the driver’s need for attentiveness, judgment, or vehicle control.”
That may be because Ford believes there are real limits to the technology’s ability to power these combined camera and radar sensor systems.
In one of its reports about the Texas crash, the NTSB said it had met with Ford staff about “AEB responses to stationary targets in situations similar to this crash.”
A Ford employee told the NTSB:[b]Given the functional limitations of industry sensing technology and scenarios of vehicle movement speed, nearby vehicle maneuvering, and environmental factors, Ford does not expect current generation radar and camera fused AEB systems to be able to detect and classify impact targets with sufficient confidence for the AEB system to respond. ”
For this reason, the NTSB noted in documents released Wednesday that vehicle subsystems did not apply the brakes in either fatal crash.
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