A U.S. federal safety regulator has “upgraded” its investigation into Ford's hands-free advanced driver assistance system known as BlueCruise — a required

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Monday it is upgrading a probe into 129,222 Ford Motor vehicles over reports of collisions involving the company's hands-free driving technology,

Preliminary findings show that Ford's BlueCruise hands-free driver assistance feature fails to detect stopped objects at night at freeway speeds.

Ford Motor (NYSE:F) is facing a probe by the U.S. traffic safety regulator over reports of collisions involving the automaker’s BlueCruise hands-free driving technology. The probe covers an estimated 129,