Hands-free 7 Series will let owners watch vid
BMW says the future has arrived - from next year its Level 3 autonomous driving tech will become a reality
Probably this makes us sound old, but from where PH sits the concept of fully autonomous driving still belongs to the Johnny Cab in Total Recall or the foam-fillable cars in Demolition Man. It hasn’t helped, of course, that various well-funded development programmes - several run by Silicon Valley firms - have come a cropper, some in court. But rest assured ‘highly automated’ driving on motorways is absolutely on its way. Earlier this year, Ford introduced a proper hands-off system with its subscription-based BlueCruise tech; now BMW says it will go one better with the new 7 Series.
Why one better? Well, The Ford option was considered Level 2 on the Beaufort scale (not its actual name) of what it can actually do - and therefore allow you to do. So while it allows you to take your hands off the wheel, you still need to pay attention to what’s happening in case human intervention is required. The BMW Personal Pilot L3 goes one better: its Level 3 capability means that drivers are okay to ‘temporarily divert their attention away from the road’ and ‘redirect their focus to other in-vehicle activities’. Legally. And even at night, too.
Naturally, there are some conditions. For one thing, it will only let you concentrate on something else while travelling at speeds of up to 37mph, and only on motorways with ‘structurally separated carriageways’ (i.e. those with barriers). But if you’re in slow-moving traffic on the M25, you’re quids in. And when BMW says ‘other activities’ it really does mean stuff that requires your full attention. Not only will you be able to use its existing digital services for ‘streaming videos from various providers’ you will also be able to ‘edit emails’ and the like, while the car takes care of speed, direction changes, lane positioning and distance to the vehicle ahead.
Unsurprisingly, it achieves this through a lot of pre-existing tech - expect to find sophisticated sensors everywhere, including a massive Lidar affair above the grille and inside to see what you’re up to - and what BMW describes as ‘extremely accurate GPS location-finding’. In fact, it’s the latter that is said to make up a big part of the one-off 6,000 euro price in Germany, where it will be offered as an option on the 7 Series from March next year. No word on a price in the UK just yet, but with UK law now open to the concept, Personal Pilot is tipped to cross the channel later in 2024. The future is (nearly) now.
Quite a ways away from that I think but with the recent investment in AI cameras to catch people doing other things at the wheel seems as if we're moving in two opposite directions at the same time.
I could pretty much be asleep on the motorway and the car would manage perfectly fine - this makes driving through stop/start motorway traffic very relaxing, vs having to focus on braking and clutch
-> Auto wipers - perfect
-> Lights : Matrix lights - the best ever !
Except maybe the rear scanning detection is a bit too sensitive - when reversing it will abruptly stop the car for people/kerbs/cars which are far away and no risk.
From the press release:
"In a BMW 7 Series with the BMW Personal Pilot L3 activated, customers will be able to edit e-mails, for example, or engage more deeply in telephone calls while travelling at up to 60 km/h (37 mph). They can also use digital services for e.g. streaming videos from various providers on the central display during a journey. This makes the new BMW Personal Pilot L3 the ideal solution for making good use of time spent in slow-moving traffic or tailbacks during daily motorway commutes."
So we're not focusing on safety, but look! You can watch netflix!
I could pretty much be asleep on the motorway and the car would manage perfectly fine - this makes driving through stop/start motorway traffic very relaxing, vs having to focus on braking and clutch
-> Auto wipers - perfect
-> Lights : Matrix lights - the best ever !
Except maybe the rear scanning detection is a bit too sensitive - when reversing it will abruptly stop the car for people/kerbs/cars which are far away and no risk.
There's a huge amount of complicated law and testing around any self driving systems for good reason, and no manufacturer in europe (and increasingly now in the US) can release any self driving tech without first demonstrating very robuslty that it works flawlessly all the time.
Auto-cruise and lane keep assist in todays cars work well and particularly in traffic jams where you really don't have any inputs to do.
In terms of other things I wonder whether the laws around mobile use will also be changed. If I can watch a movie/edit emails will doing that on a mobile hand held device also be allowed?
Overall I think the technology is there, its just whether the law can keep up.
I dont think the tech is anywhere near yet but its coming, I have spoken to folk who I really think should never been granted a license and they wouldnt trust it, despite having had several incidents themselves.
I think we will always have accidents but surely, if the automation can cut them down to a minimum then its worth having ?
I would be happy to have a second pair of unblinking eyes that will perhaps bail me out if I get it wrong, and we all have the capacity to get it wrong. I think we maybe expect it will be the end of driving but I dont think it will be, more about systems that keep a watching brief when you are in control, and can take over fully when you are tired, bored etc.
Its funny though, there was a crash of an autonomous car testing in the States where a woman was killed, which was horrific, and people call to ban all autonomous systems in cars and stop development, yet 42,795 people died on the roads in the US last year. 1 death from autonomous vehicle is unacceptable, but 40 odd thousand due to human drivers is completely fine ?
We believe we are infallible, we arent, these systems arent much good yet but will be, and be better than us but we are terrified that there may be accidents, er, there are already ?
It seems inevitable, but right now I’d prefer to be present in the task/situation I am in. I think good/safe driving is being aware of surroundings and being perceptive of what could happen down the road. So at the point a machine hands back control how much situational awareness do you have?
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