By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - The National Transportation Safety Board on Tuesday criticized the lack of government regulations on driver assistance systems and raised questions about claims made by automakers.
The NTSB is holding a hearing to determine the probable cause of two fatal crashes involving Ford Motor's hands-free advanced driver assistance system BlueCruise.
NTSB board member Thomas Chapman said he was disappointed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,
saying it has shown a "lack of leadership" in failing to address issues surrounding the deployment of driver assistance systems.
Both crashes in 2024 involved 2022 model year Ford Mustang Mach-Es operating in the company’s partial automation mode in 2024 rear-end crashes in which the Ford SUVs struck stationary vehicles at highway speeds in San Antonio and Philadelphia.
NTSB board members have repeatedly questioned if adequate safeguards were included in driver assistance systems that carry out some tasks but require drivers to be attentive and ready to take over for other tasks.
NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said automakers need to be careful about claims that automation is the solution to addressing the deaths of about 40,000 Americans annually on U.S. roads. "Humans are poorly suited for automation monitoring tasks and susceptible to complacency," Homendy said adding "in a perfect world, (NHTSA) would set minimum performance standards for safety technologies.
NHTSA did not immediately comment.
Since 2025, both the NTSB and NHTSA have been investigating the use of BlueCruise to address questions about system limitations and to evaluate drivers’ ability to respond. Ford says BlueCruise is an advanced hands-free driving system that operates on 97% of U.S. and Canadian highways with no intersections or traffic signals.
The NTSB has opened several investigations in recent years into advanced driver assistance systems, including Tesla's Autopilot. In December 2023, electric car maker Tesla agreed to recall 2 million vehicles to install new safeguards for its Autopilot driver assistance system.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
