Everyone knows that BMW prides itself on being the “ultimate driving machine.” At the same time, you don’t want to be left behind when it comes to autonomous driving technology. Treating change as a marathon rather than a sprint and avoiding a rush to launch new features. Safety is the top priority for the Munich-based luxury car manufacturer. For this reason, the company will not rush to release new technologies just to beat competing brands.
In an interview with Australian magazine CarExpertThe iX3’s Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) engineer emphasized that safety is the number one priority. Falk Schubert assured customers that BMW will never compromise on safety to sell a feature that a competing brand may not yet offer. The company remains cautious about introducing new technologies, preferring gradual development to introducing systems that are not yet fully developed:
“We want to be safe. Because if you go too easy on the features and then have a serious accident, that’s not something BMW wants and what BMW stands for. So we really mean safety first, not to be overly cautious, but because it’s the design principle.”
Schubert explained that the company is currently focusing on the highway/motorway assistant function. In the new iX3 it enables hands-free driving at speeds of up to 130 km/h. You must continue to keep an eye on the road ahead and be ready to intervene to avoid potential dangers. Automatic lane changes can be triggered by looking in the side mirror, but only if the system suggests a lane change.
The iX3 also has a City Assistant that detects traffic lights and automatically stops at a red light. When the traffic light turns green, the electric SUV drives off again, but only if the camera under the rearview mirror can confirm that you are paying attention. If you are distracted, the “NA5” will stop. As Schubert emphasized, it is about giving absolute priority to safety.
It is worth mentioning that the new highway and city assistants will initially be introduced in selected markets: Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The technology is expected to be available in the United States at launch next summer. Availability will expand later in the model’s lifecycle, which is said to run until the end of 2034.
Source: CarExpert
