Toronto, Ontario — In this electric and autonomous vehicle report, United States President, Donald Trump announces plans to remove electric vehicle initiatives within the country; while the NHTSA opens an engineering analysis on Ford’s BlueCruise system.
Ending electric
United States President, Donald Trump, has announced plans to eliminate the country’s current electric vehicle mandates.
While the proposed rollback would require congressional action in order to be successful, Trump’s current order reportedly seeks to end the $7,500 tax credit for EV buyers that was signed into law in 2022.
Additionally, Trump proposes ending the federal support for vehicle charging stations and the low interest loans available for automotive manufacturers looking to build new plants for the development of EVs and their batteries.
Finally, the president hopes to ban the motion of eight states—California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington—that seek to ban the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.
Fatal findings
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reportedly opened an engineering analysis after first beginning an investigation into Ford’s BlueCruise driver-assist system in April, 2024.
The investigation was first opened after the NHTSA received notice of two fatal collisions involving Ford’s technology.
Since then, Ford has identified more than 2.5 million vehicles globally matching the NHTSA’s description.
Here, a majority of the vehicles include a lane centering assist (LCA) feature that gives drivers partial hands-free abilities.
The update further notes that throughout the investigation, limitations in the detection of stationary vehicles in certain conditions have been identified.
And, an analysis of the data taken indicates that in each incident involving a collision, the driver did not apply the brakes or take evasive steering measures, and deceleration was not issued by the BlueCruise system prior to impact.
The NHTSA is continuing to investigate the issue. During the engineering analysis, the agency will continue to perform vehicle evaluations and review technical information on related crah and non-crash reports.
