Confused About Automated Driving Features? You’re Not Alone.

Summary

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The Journal. – "Confused About Automated Driving Features? You’re Not Alone."

Host: Ryan Knutson
Episode Date: July 29, 2026
Produced by: The Wall Street Journal & Spotify Studios

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Episode Overview

This episode examines the growing confusion and risks surrounding automated driving technology in modern vehicles, focusing particularly on Ford’s BlueCruise system. Through real-life crash cases, internal company studies, and industry-wide analysis, the episode dissects why driver misunderstandings persist—even as these features are promoted as making driving safer. The discussion highlights how the lack of standardization, mixed messages about driver responsibility, and the evolving relationship between humans and cars are shaping the present and future of road safety.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Ohio Ford BlueCruise Crash

• Case Summary:

  • In May 2025, a Ford engineer and her husband crashed their F-150 in Toledo, Ohio. They claimed BlueCruise was engaged and malfunctioned, resulting in the truck flipping over ([00:05]–[01:09]).
  • Police & court records: BlueCruise was allegedly on; driver said brakes were tapped but the truck accelerated.
  • Notable moment: Emergency responders had to extricate the couple, leading to hospitalization and surgery for the husband.

• Investigation Findings:

  • Ford's system data revealed BlueCruise was not engaged at the time; the gas pedal—not brakes—was pressed ([01:42], [13:22]).
  • Key theme: A disconnect between what drivers think the car’s systems are doing and the reality.

“Based on their statements, there was an absolute disconnect between what they thought the truck was doing versus what it was actually doing. And in the end, they experienced this, you know, pretty treacherous crash.”
— Ford Industry Analyst [01:30]

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2. The Evolution & Types of Automated Driving Features

• Spectrum of Technologies:

  • On one end: Fully autonomous taxis (e.g., Waymo).
  • Most common: Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) that control speed, steering, and limited hands-free highway driving (Tesla Autopilot, Ford BlueCruise, GM Super Cruise) ([03:47]–[04:27]).

• Industry’s Early Hopes vs. Reality:

  • Self-driving cars were once promised 'around the corner' (~2016–2017), but fully autonomous vehicles remain far off ([06:49]).
  • Automakers pivoted to incremental upgrades due to technical and regulatory delays, despite earlier worries these steps would be confusing and potentially dangerous for drivers ([06:11], [06:49]).

“If you go back and look at the statements in 2016, 2017, we all should have been driving around in self driving cars by now.”
— Ford Industry Analyst [06:49]

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3. The Root of Driver Confusion

• Evidence from Ford’s Own Studies:

  • Internal research showed many drivers couldn’t distinguish when or how to take control from the car ([07:29], [07:43]).
  • Confusion about features like lane-keeping and braking was common—even among early test users.

  “One of the biggest examples that came up was if your car veers out of a lane, are you supposed to steer it back into the lane or will the car do it?...a number of people didn’t get right and didn’t understand.”
  — Ford Industry Analyst [07:54]

• Confusion Exacerbated by Lack of Standardization:

  • Features and controls differ not only among automakers, but between models and years ([08:08]).
  • Example: Automated emergency braking operates differently from vehicle to vehicle, surprising unprepared drivers.

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4. Safety Measures & Their Limits

• Driver Alerts:

  • Haptic feedback (steering-wheel buzz), dashboard alerts, auditory warnings ([10:11]–[10:42]).
  • Effectiveness varies; sometimes, these warnings are missed or misunderstood.

• System Limitations and Accidents:

  • Some accidents occur even when alerts are issued repeatedly ([16:01]).
  • Systems may intentionally ignore stationary objects at high speeds to avoid 'phantom braking'—leading to missed real hazards ([16:35], [16:48]).

  “Once you start getting up to highway speeds...if you go under a highway overpass, for example, that could trigger the advanced cruise control to slam on the brakes and slow down, even if no other car is in front of you.”
  — Ford Industry Analyst [16:48]

  “It reminds me of those sudden acceleration cases from years ago. People thought cars were suddenly accelerating, but it turned out they were just trying to slam on the brakes but accidentally hitting the wrong pedal.”
  — Ryan Knutson [13:34]

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5. Regulatory Response & Ongoing Challenges

• Incident Data:

  • Since 2021, Ford has reported 32 crashes (3 fatal) where automated driving was suspected to be engaged ([17:13]).
  • Only a handful directly involved BlueCruise.

• Regulators’ Stance:

  • Aggressive oversight, multitude of open investigations ([18:03]).
  • Insist that drivers remain responsible; technology is not a substitute for full attention ([18:03]–[18:48]).

• Fundamental Shift in Car Interaction:

  • The learning curve is steep—manuals are more technical, confusion about feature capabilities is widespread ([19:09]).
  • No consistent standards across automakers and models ([19:09]).

  “When there’s no real set standards for how this technology is used. Even the buttons on a steering wheel could differ from car to car.”
  — Ford Industry Analyst [19:09]

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6. The Future: Questions About Training & Safety

• Should the licensing process change?
  • Hosts raise whether drivers should be certified or tested on these advanced features ([20:06]).
  • Uncertainty and lack of understanding persist, even after years of ADAS systems on the road ([20:14]).

“What the story was really kind of getting at for me is there’s still a lot of uncertainty with some people about what this stuff actually is doing and what its limitations are.”
— Ford Industry Analyst [20:14]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• “It was just a very, you know, scary crash just visually to see and just imagine that someone’s truck, just as they put it, acted erratically and then kind of flipped over.” — Ford Industry Analyst [00:57]

• “So I think that there’s definitely still a question of just how well people understand what they’re using. And this just, I think, really illustrated it.” — Ford Industry Analyst [15:12]

• “A confused driver is clearly not necessarily a safe one.” — Ryan Knutson [14:55]

• “It feels like our relationship with vehicles is changing...the way you operated a vehicle fundamentally didn’t really change...but now there are these new features that change our relationship with the car.” — Ryan Knutson [18:48]

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |------------|-----------------------------------------------------| | 00:05–01:09 | Ohio crash story introduction | | 03:47–04:27 | Overview of automated driving spectrum | | 06:11–06:49 | Ford internal debates on automation approach | | 07:29–07:54 | Internal studies: driver confusion surfaces | | 08:08–08:35 | Standardization and feature inconsistency | | 10:11–10:42 | Types of driver alerts across automakers | | 13:22–13:51 | Ford’s system data on the crash | | 15:35–16:20 | Other prominent BlueCruise-involved crashes | | 16:35–17:13 | Limitations: phantom braking and stationary objects | | 18:03–18:48 | Federal regulators’ response | | 19:09–20:14 | The challenge: changing driver-vehicle relationship |

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Episode Tone & Final Thoughts

The tone is cautionary yet analytical—balancing the promise of automation with real-world complexity, confusion, and risk. Through detailed reporting and industry insight, the episode leaves listeners with key questions about consumer safety, regulatory readiness, and the evolving contract of trust between driver and vehicle.

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Transcript

[Ryan Knudsen]

In May of last year, a Ford engineer was driving with her husband near Toledo, Ohio. They were on the freeway in a Ford F150. And according to them, they were using a hands free driving feature.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

And the way that they describe it, there just was this sort of frantic moment where they said that they had this Blue Cruise feature on a Ford from Ford system engaged at the time and they couldn't figure out how to turn it off.

[Ryan Knudsen]

That's our colleague Ryan Felton. According to court records, he reviewed the driver, said he tapped the brakes, but instead of stopping, the truck accelerated. The truck ended up crashing into a guardrail. Police body camera footage showed it had flipped completely upside down.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

Are they responding?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah, they're both good.

[Ryan Knudsen]

They're just trapped.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

It was just a very, you know, scary crash just visually to see and just imagine that someone's truck, just as they put it, acted erratically and then kind of flipped over.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Emergency responders extricated the couple from the car. They were put in the hospital and the Ford engineer's husband needed surgery and wore a neck brace after. That's according to court records and police filings, the driver thought the crash was caused by a malfunction with the car's automated driving tech, Blue Cruise.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

Based on their statements, there was an absolute disconnect between what they thought the truck was doing versus what it was actually doing. And in the end, they experienced this, you know, pretty treacherous crash.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Ford told federal regulators that Blue Cruise wasn't engaged and the driver actually pressed the gas pedal. But our colleague Ryan says that the story of the driver in Toledo points to a bigger issue, that this technology, which is supposed to make driving safer, is in some cases making drivers confused. And that confusion has contributed to accidents. Welcome to the Journal. Our show about money, business and power. I'm Ryan knudsen. It's Wednesday, July 29th. Coming up on the show, cars are becoming more hands free. Some drivers are struggling to adjust.

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[Ryan Knudsen]

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[Ryan Knudsen]

These days there's a wide spectrum of what automated driving technology means. On one end, you have fully autonomous taxis like Waymo that have no driver at all. And on the other, there are driver assistance technologies that control some aspects of driving, like braking, highway steering and adaptive cruise control. Teslas have full self driving while supervised. GM has something called Super Cruise and Ford has Blue Cruise. It works on certain highways.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

BlueCruise is kind of like an add on feature. It handles steering speed. Plus the third option is being able to go hands free.

[Ryan Knudsen]

This kind of technology, which many safety advocates believe makes driving safer, really started taking shape in the auto industry about a decade ago. The hope was that self driving cars would eventually be mass produced and ultimately reduce accidents and save lives. The first company to mainstream some of this technology was Tesla with a system called Autopilot.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

So we've been able to accelerate Autopilot and bring it to market faster than originally anticipated.

[Ryan Knudsen]

It wasn't fully autonomous driving, but Autopilot could control a Tesla's speed and even turn the steering wheel. But drivers were still supposed to be ready to take over at any moment.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

So we integrate those four systems and the car can do almost anything. Tesla's technology really kind of started this wave of every automaker now coming up with their own sort of branded technology.

[Ryan Knudsen]

While Tesla's tech was first getting on the road, it seemed like a completely self driving future was just on the horizon. At Ford executives there were having an internal debate on this technology. Should it lean into fully autonomous cars or should it do something more incremental?

[Ford Industry Analyst]

There was kind of two camps where you had some folks who thought you could pursue technology like Tesla's Autopilot, which is kind of this lower form of automation where the car would control steering and speed. Ford, though its executives at the time were pretty outspoken about the idea that this sort of technology just doesn't work for the driver and had the point of view that they just needed to go straight, straight to full automation.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Some Ford executives worried that just going partly towards automation would make things more confusing because it's not always clear when the driver is in charge or when

[Ford Industry Analyst]

the car is purely just from a safety standpoint, that it's too Difficult, the executives were saying at the time, to keep drivers in the loop. Like the idea of this technology is, it's a supplement to driving. But you have to remain vigilant and keep your eyes on the road at all times and be ready to take control of the car if prompted.

[Ryan Knudsen]

So why did Ford ultimately decide to go the incremental route and add driver assistance technologies instead of waiting until fully autonomous driving was ready?

[Ford Industry Analyst]

I think like everyone else, Ford came around to the idea that autonomy was going to take much longer than anyone realized. If you go back and look at the statements in 2016, 2017, we all should have been driving around in self driving cars by now. Once it became clear that autonomy in a significant and robust scope was going to take much longer, that's when you saw the shift and beginning of the development of the system that ultimately became BlueCruise.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Earlier this year, Ryan started looking into how and why Ford made that decision. He reviewed confidential company documents from 2018 and 2019.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

I think the thing I was just trying to get at, try to better understand was just what did drivers think when this stuff was in development? And what the studies that Ford had done showed was that there was definitely this sort of confusion that we're talking about.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Documents from multiple Ford studies showed that some drivers didn't understand how to use certain features, stop paying attention to the road, or failed to respond to warnings to retake control.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

And one of the biggest examples that came up was if your car veers out of a lane, are you supposed to steer it back into the lane or will the car do it? That's something that in some of the studies, a number of people didn't get right and didn't understand.

[Ryan Knudsen]

And also what's so confusing about this is that every car maker is different because the first time that I drove a car with this technology was in 2020 and it had automated braking and it was amazing in stop and go traffic. But then a year later, I was in a different car made by a different automaker. And I was using what I thought was the same automated braking system, but this one turned off under 20 miles an hour. And thank God I was quick enough to slam on my brakes, you know, but I couldn't believe that these cars are so different.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

Yeah, I mean, that's sort of like their point about how transposing the technology is like a decade ago when everyone was kind of thinking autonomous cars were around the corner. Like the thinking was like these sorts of steps and tech measures that you're seeing in cars now. Was like, probably not a good idea because of all this sort of things that we're talking about. And that's why you have companies that were like, no, we're just going to do autonomy. And I mean, I think that's still like, I think what the reporting kind of showed is like, that's still a relevant point.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Ford told the Journal that it took steps to improve BlueCruise before rolling it out, such as by refining the graphics on vehicle dashboards and the messaging used to alert drivers to further improve the driver's understanding of their responsibility. Ford launched its version of automated driving assistance technology in 2018, a feature called Copilot360. In 2021, it launched BlueCruise, which included hands free driving. Just this week, Ford said drivers have logged more than 800 million miles with it on today. Blue Cruise is designed for use on the highway. It can control a car's speed and let you take your hands off the steering wheel. There's a camera that tracks your eyes to make sure you're paying attention to the road. And the company says it makes it clear on its website, in owner's manuals and external communications that drivers are required to remain attentive and be ready to take the wheel at any moment. If the system believes that you're not paying attention, what does it do to bring you back?

[Ford Industry Analyst]

I think it's pretty consistent across pretty much any automaker. You may get a steering wheel buzz like a nag in that sense. If the car starts to veer out of the lane a little, it may buzz an alert in the dashboard to let you know that you need to pay attention. It may sound a beep or an alarm of some sounds. I mean there's every automaker kind of deploys a different set of techniques. It's like just basically haptics and sounds to alert you that something's going on that requires your more or less.

[Ryan Knudsen]

But in some cases these beeps and buzzes haven't been enough to avoid accidents. That's next.

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[Ryan Knudsen]

After that Ford engineer and her husband crashed an F150 in Toledo last year. The driver, the engineer's husband, blamed Blue

[Ford Industry Analyst]

Cruise when police got there, according to the initial reports just from police and then what was initially conveyed to Ford, they blamed it on an error with the cruise control. And when they talked to Ford about the incident afterward, the employee who was the passenger at the time, she had conveyed that they had had Blue Cruise on at the time and they weren't able to disable it as they were making a merge on the highway. And in that moment when they were trying to figure out what was going on with it, that's when the truck burst through a guardrail.

[Ryan Knudsen]

But cars with this technology are continuously collecting a lot of data and Ford can see when Blue Cruise is engaged.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

When Ford looked at the data, they noted that the driver had disengaged the beforehand and had pressed down on the accelerator, fully compressed it.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Ford said that in the moments before the crash, the driver had pressed down on the gas pedal, not the brake. It sort of reminds me of those sudden acceleration cases from years ago. People thought cars were suddenly accelerating, but it turned out they were just trying to slam on the brakes but accidentally hitting the wrong pedal.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

It's a common phenomenon for sure. If you're in a moment of panic and you you think you're braking, but instead you hit the wrong pedal. It's just if you are listening to what the driver and his and his wife said, you know, it was just a clear example, you know, I think of people who had a misunderstanding of what this tech was actually doing. According to the data that came out

[Ryan Knudsen]

later, the driver did not respond to requests for comment. His wife, the Ford engineer, declined to comment. Through Ford, police issued the driver a traffic ticket for failure to control the car.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

He goes to court after telling the officers that was a cruise control malfunction. Contesting that. He wanted time to contest the ticket because he said the issue with the truck was a cruise control malfunction. But it was just one of those things where he. You know, to me, it underscored just how much that they actually had the point of view that it must have been this technology, because he was literally contesting the idea that he failed to control the car. Like, he was blaming the tech straight up.

[Ryan Knudsen]

I mean, either way, like, he was confused about what was happening with the vehicle and that contributed to the crash. Even if Blue Cruise was not malfunctioning, but he thought it was operational, and he wasn't. You know, a confused driver is clearly not necessarily a safe one.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

Yeah, and I think that just gets back to. I think the larger point, which is Tesla's Technology came out 2015, GMs a couple years later. Ford's has been out several years now. You have many years of this stuff being on the road. So I think that there's definitely still a question of just how well people understand what they're using. And this just, I think, really illustrated it.

[Ryan Knudsen]

There have been other prominent crashes, too. In 2024, there were two crashes involving Ford cars that did have Blue Cruise engaged. One of them happened in San Antonio.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

The driver was traveling at highway speeds, had Blue Cruise on, and it was late at night, and there was a parked stationary car in the middle of the road at the time of the incident. Didn't stop in time.

[Ryan Knudsen]

That driver in a Mustang Mach E crashed into the parked car on the road. The driver in the parked car died. In a report to federal regulators, Ford said that the BlueCruise system had tried to alert the driver to retake the wheel, but the warnings were ignored for 30 seconds prior to the collision.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

When regulators dug into these crashes and started looking at other crashes, they found out that Ford had designed its speed control technology to stop acknowledging stationary objects when traveling at, effectively, highway speeds.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Ford said it made that adjustment because of a phenomenon called phantom braking. That's when the car would stop at high speed on the highway because it detected a stationary object on the road that actually wasn't there.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

The way the tech works, essentially, once you start getting up to highway speeds, you could. It may start like if you go under a highway overpass, for example, that could trigger the advanced cruise control to slam on the brakes and slow down, even if no other car is in front of you. So there's that element of it that is, you know, I think, kind of underscores, again, like a limitation that just maybe drivers aren't aware of.

[Ryan Knudsen]

Ford said there may not be adequate time for either a human driver or the automated driving system to respond under certain conditions, such as approaching an unlit vehicle at nighttime at highway speeds. To be sure, there are a lot of car crashes in the US Each year, and many don't have anything to do with automated driving technology. And many safety advocates do believe the technology makes driving Safer overall. Since 2021, Ford has reported to U.S. regulators 32 crashes, including three that were fatal, in which the company's automated driving technology was suspected to be engaged at the time of the collision, according to federal data. According to Ford, only a handful of those incidents directly involve the blue crews. How have regulators been responding to this, the growing use of this technology?

[Ford Industry Analyst]

Yeah, the short answer is they've been aggressively paying attention to how this technology is being used and incidents that have come up. There's just a countless number of investigations that are open right now into potential defects in these cars and this technology. I think with respect to the type of stuff that's in Ford's vehicles, I mean, they've been pretty insistent on the point that at the end of the day, drivers still need to be remain in the loop, and they can't see that point of view at all. So they very much have taken the point of view that drivers are responsible when using the technology, but they're still taking pains to investigate whether the technology is just fundamentally safe or not.

[Ryan Knudsen]

It feels like our relationship with vehicles is changing. Like, we grew up and many Americans, you know, had. We've had cars our whole lives. But, like, the way you operated a vehicle fundamentally didn't really change the steering wheel, the brake pedals, you know, but now there are these new features that change our relationship with the car, and those can be difficult to get used to.

[Ford Industry Analyst]

Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things where it's like you learn to ride a bike and then riding a bike secondhand nature. But when there's no real set standards for how this technology is used. Like, even the buttons on a steering wheel could differ from car to car. Like, you're not going to necessarily get into a car and understand what it's going to do from the job. If you read a driver's manual now about this technology, you know, it'll go on for many pages and say the lane centering can handle this degree level of turn, and it's like, well, I'm not in real time going to know like, what a 37 degree or whatever it is. I'm just making up a number. But, like, that's just not possible. So at the end of the day, you have to be alert at all times when using it. But it's like, is that really making you. For some people, yeah, it makes them feel more comfortable when they drive. But like, for others, it just totally freaks them out.

[Ryan Knudsen]

I mean, it makes me wonder, like, do we need to update our driver's licenses? Like, should people need to take a test before they can use this technology?

[Ford Industry Analyst]

I mean, I think as someone who's covered this a long time, what the story was really kind of getting at for me is there's still a lot of uncertainty with some people about what this stuff actually is doing and what its limitations are.

[Ryan Knudsen]

That's all for today. Wednesday, July 29th 9th the Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. If you like our show, follow us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts throughout every weekday afternoon. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.