U.S. automotive giant Ford’s bringing more driver assistance features to U.S. roads, whether drivers are ready for them or not.
This fall, Ford’s electric Mustang Mach-E and Lincoln ActiveGlide 1.2 will both feature hands-free lane changing capabilities, in-lane repositioning, and predictive speed assist, according to a recent press release. The rollout, which Ford touts as a safety improvement, comes despite growing scrutiny around similar advanced driver assistance systems used by competitors (looking at you Tesla) who’ve drawn regulatory scrutiny following a spate of crashes.
In a statement, Doug Field, Ford’s Chief EV & Digital Systems Officer, said the features will let drivers change lanes using only a turn signal and make hands-free driving feel, “more human-like.” The system can also suggest beneficial lane changes while a driver is bogged down in slow-moving traffic and will subtly shift the driver’s vehicles away from encroaching vehicles in neighbouring lanes. The two features called Ford BlueCruise 1.2 and Lincoln ActiveGlide 1.2, are part of an upgrade package, which Ford reportedly wants to expand to other models in the future, according to TechCrunch.
“These improvements are just the beginning of a constant journey toward improving safety and, in the future, giving customers valuable time back,” Field said. The company says it’s identified more than 209,215 km worth of prequalified sections of divided highways where its assist features can be used.
Ford’s not stopping at driver assistance features either. Earlier this year, the company reportedly petitioned the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) to grant exemptions allowing them to deploy a test batch of self-driving vehicles without human controls. The carmaker, according to Reuters, told the NHTSA it wants to release a self-driving vehicle capable of ride-hailing and package delivery within this decade.
Ford’s ADAS upgrades come amid a time of heightened scrutiny into other supposedly driverless capabilities. The lion’s share of that scrutiny originates from one company: Tesla.
In June, the NHTSA expanded its investigation concerning around a dozen accounts of Teslas allegedly hurling themselves into first responder vehicles with the company’s Autopilot driver assistance feature engaged. The NHTSA also released first-of-its-kind data earlier this year which found at least 392 reported incidents of crashes and at least six deaths involving Level 2 advanced driver assistance technology between July 1, 2021 and May 15, 2022. Tesla accounted for the vast majority of crashes in the report, due in no small part to the sheer popularity of Autopilot. Multiple U.S. lawmakers have since urged federal regulators to increase their scrutiny of Tesla’s driver assistance tech in particular. Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, seemed to begrudgingly acknowledge some of those concerns in a tweet Sunday, warning users its new Full Self Driving update could make vehicles, “overly cautious,” in the name of safety.
FSD Beta 10.69.2 rolling out now. Please note that top priority is safety, so expect it to be overly cautious, especially around pedestrians.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 11, 2022
All that scrutiny, paired with measurable consumer unease over supposed self-driving features, potentially complicates Ford’s decision to pitch the capabilities as “safety” features. While self-driving die-hards will swear more autonomous features will inevitably lead to less human suffering on roads, real world drivers appear less convinced. A majority of U.S. adults (63%), surveyed in a recent Pew research poll said they would not want to ride in a driverless vehicle if given the opportunity. In another survey conducted by Morning Consult in April, just 9% of U.S. adults said they had “a lot” of trust in self-driving vehicles compared to 33% who said they didn’t trust them at all.
Clearly, Ford and Tesla’s vehicles currently don’t meet the definition of a fully driverless vehicle, but they are introducing features drivers have come to associate with the general push towards autonomy. It’s unclear what effect pushing those features forward during a period of low public trust will have. It’s possible the consistent rollout of ADAS and driverless adjacent features could essentially normalize their use. At the same time though, continued crashes associated with those features risks affirming driving concerns and making the prospect of driverless vehicles even less palatable.