The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has noted that an ill-fated Ford Mustang Mach-E that was involved in a fatal crash with a Honda CR-V in San Antonio, Texas, on February 24, 2024, had its BlueCruise active driving assistance system engaged. The incident resulted in the death of the CR-V’s driver.
The use of BlueCruise in the Mustang Mach-E was hinted at by San Antonio police, who noted that the all-electric crossover had “partial automation” engaged at the time of the collision. As per the NTSB, a witness traveling in front of the Mach-E noted that she manually changed lanes to avoid hitting the CR-V, which was stopped without its tail lights or hazards engaged. The witness noted that she saw another vehicle hit the Honda from her rearview mirror.
“The Ford was equipped with numerous advanced driver assistance systems, including those providing partial automation capabilities that Ford calls ‘BlueCruise.’ Based on data obtained from the vehicle, the driver had been operating the vehicle in BlueCruise mode before the crash,” the NTSB wrote in its release.
NTSB issues its preliminary report for the ongoing safety investigation of the Feb. 24 collision between an SUV operating with partial driving automation and a stationary SUV in San Antonio, Texas:https://t.co/nJqMn0m4Ag— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) April 11, 2024
The NTSB is also looking into a Ford Mustang Mach-E crash that occurred on March 3, 2024, in Philadelphia. The vehicle’s active driving assistance system is also suspected to have been involved in the crash, as noted in a Reuters report. The Philadelphia crash involved a Mach-E hitting two stationary cars on the I-95 interstate. Two people passed away due to the incident, and traffic was adversely affected for hours after the crash.
The NTSB has noted that it was investigating the Philadelphia crash in collaboration with the Pennsylvania State Police. Ford, for its part, has noted that it was recently made aware of the Philadelphia crash by the NTSB. The automaker has informed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) about the incident as well.
“We are researching the events of March 3 and collaborating fully with both agencies to understand the facts,” Ford noted.
Ford is not the only automaker whose driver-assist solution has been subjected to scrutiny. Tesla’s Autopilot system has been the focus of much scrutiny and criticism over the years, with the NTSB and NHTSA opening several investigations into the EV maker’s driver-assist system. These culminated in Tesla issuing a “recall” — in the form of an over-the-air software update — for over 2 million vehicles last December. The “recall” rolled out more assertive driver checks and more prominent visual alerts when Autopilot is engaged.
Ford has marketed BlueCruise as a hands-free driving system for areas where it could be activated, called Blue Zones. As per Ford, BlueCruise works on 97% of US and Canadian highways with no intersections or traffic lights. Reviewers have received BlueCruise positively, with Consumer Reports rating the solution as its top-ranked active driving assistance system.
Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.
Tesla stock (NASDAQ: TSLA) closed at an all-time high on Tuesday, jumping over 3 percent during the day and finishing at $489.88.
The price beats the previous record close, which was $479.86.
Shares have had a crazy year, dipping more than 40 percent from the start of the year. The stock then started to recover once again around late April, when its price started to climb back up from the low $200 level.
This week, Tesla started to climb toward its highest levels ever, as it was revealed on Sunday that the company was testing driverless Robotaxis in Austin. The spike in value pushed the company’s valuation to $1.63 trillion.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
It is the seventh-most valuable company on the market currently, trailing Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
Shares closed up $14.57 today, up over 3 percent.
The stock has gone through a lot this year, as previously mentioned. Shares tumbled in Q1 due to CEO Elon Musk’s involvement with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which pulled his attention away from his companies and left a major overhang on their valuations.
However, things started to rebound halfway through the year, and as the government started to phase out the $7,500 tax credit, demand spiked as consumers tried to take advantage of it.
Q3 deliveries were the highest in company history, and Tesla responded to the loss of the tax credit with the launch of the Model 3 and Model Y Standard.
Additionally, analysts have announced high expectations this week for the company on Wall Street as Robotaxi continues to be the focus. With autonomy within Tesla’s sights, things are moving in the direction of Robotaxi being a major catalyst for growth on the Street in the coming year.
Elon Musk
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, Mark Delaney of Goldman Sachs says.
Tesla is in the process of rolling out its Robotaxi platform to areas outside of Austin and the California Bay Area. It has plans to launch in five additional cities, including Houston, Dallas, Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.
However, the company’s expansion is not what the focus needs to be, according to Delaney. It’s the speed of deployment.
The analyst said:
“We think the key focus from here will be how fast Tesla can scale driverless operations (including if Tesla’s approach to software/hardware allows it to scale significantly faster than competitors, as the company has argued), and on profitability.”
Profitability will come as the Robotaxi fleet expands. Making that money will be dependent on when Tesla can initiate rides in more areas, giving more customers access to the program.
There are some additional things that the company needs to make happen ahead of the major Robotaxi expansion, one of those things is launching driverless rides in Austin, the first city in which it launched the program.
This week, Tesla started testing driverless Robotaxi rides in Austin, as two different Model Y units were spotted with no occupants, a huge step in the company’s plans for the ride-sharing platform.
Tesla Robotaxi goes driverless as Musk confirms Safety Monitor removal testing
CEO Elon Musk has been hoping to remove Safety Monitors from Robotaxis in Austin for several months, first mentioning the plan to have them out by the end of 2025 in September. He confirmed on Sunday that Tesla had officially removed vehicle occupants and started testing truly unsupervised rides.
Although Safety Monitors in Austin have been sitting in the passenger’s seat, they have still had the ability to override things in case of an emergency. After all, the ultimate goal was safety and avoiding any accidents or injuries.
Goldman Sachs reiterated its ‘Neutral’ rating and its $400 price target. Delaney said, “Tesla is making progress with its autonomous technology,” and recent developments make it evident that this is true.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets bold Robotaxi prediction from Wall Street firm
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) received a bold Robotaxi prediction from Morgan Stanley, which anticipates a dramatic increase in the size of the company’s autonomous ride-hailing suite in the coming years.
Last week, Andrew Percoco took over Tesla analysis for Morgan Stanley from Adam Jonas, who covered the stock for years. Percoco seems to be less optimistic and bullish on Tesla shares, while still being fair and balanced in his analysis.
Percoco dug into the Robotaxi fleet and its expansion in the coming years in his latest note, released on Tuesday. The firm expects Tesla to increase the Robotaxi fleet size to 1,000 vehicles in 2026. However, that’s small-scale compared to what they expect from Tesla in a decade.
Tesla expands Robotaxi app access once again, this time on a global scale
By 2035, Morgan Stanley believes there will be one million Robotaxis on the road across multiple cities, a major jump and a considerable fleet size. We assume this means the fleet of vehicles Tesla will operate internally, and not including passenger-owned vehicles that could be added through software updates.
He also listed three specific catalysts that investors should pay attention to, as these will represent the company being on track to achieve its Robotaxi dreams:
- Opening Robotaxi to the public without a Safety Monitor. Timing is unclear, but it appears that Tesla is getting closer by the day.
- Improvement in safety metrics without the Safety Monitor. Tesla’s ability to improve its safety metrics as it scales miles driven without the Safety Monitor is imperative as it looks to scale in new states and cities in 2026.
- Cybercab start of production, targeted for April 2026. Tesla’s Cybercab is a purpose-built vehicle (no steering wheel or pedals, only two seats) that is expected to be produced through its state-of-the-art unboxed manufacturing process, offering further cost reductions and thus accelerating adoption over time.
Robotaxi stands to be one of Tesla’s most significant revenue contributors, especially as the company plans to continue expanding its ride-hailing service across the world in the coming years.
Its current deployment strategy is controlled and conservative to avoid any drastic and potentially program-ruining incidents.
So far, the program, which is active in Austin and the California Bay Area, has been widely successful.
Tesla stock closes at all-time high on heels of Robotaxi progress
Tesla needs to come through on this one Robotaxi metric, analyst says
