Ford gets approval for semi-autonomous driving function

COLOGNE (dpa-AFX) - Ford is now allowed to sell cars in Germany with a semi-autonomous driving function that allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel on certain stretches of highway. The Federal Motor Transport Authority has given the go-ahead for the so-called Blue Cruise technology, the company announced in Koln on Monday. "Data collected worldwide from more than one million test kilometers formed the basis for successful approval in Germany," Ford manager Torsten Wey said. In the U.S. and Canada, 194,000 Ford and Lincoln vehicles have already traveled a total of 175 million kilometers in Blue Cruise mode, it said. The key question, he said, is how much the Ford feature will cost.