BMW Puts Passenger Safety First in Autonomous Cars

Being fully automated has its perks, but it can also be dangerous if one of the automated systems will fail. BMW is taking extreme measures to make sure that their future autonomous cars put driver and passenger safety first all the time. In case of a crash while on autonomous mode, BMW is willing to take full responsibility of the incident.

According to Oliver Poguntke, Project Manager for Driver Assistance Systems for the 5 Series, BMW is willing to take 100% responsibility for the safety and well-being of any occupants inside an autonomous BMW. That is a great assurance for those planning to buy BMWs in the future.

“I think you must [take responsibility]. If you change the responsibility from the driver to fully automatic with the car then the mass producer must take liability for this… I think this is a necessary step,”. said Poguntke. “To change the responsibility, we must also have the laws. There is a lot of discussions in the world, and some countries are different to others. We need to have consistency with this.”

BMW has always been very careful with autonomy. BMW CEO Harald Kruger spoke in the past about how BMW would not release a fully autonomous car to the public until they know that it is completely safe. They refuse to go the fast lane or do it in the same pace as Tesla, who have encountered safety issues in their autonomous cars in the past.

BMW knows that there is a lot of work ahead to make this happen. “We have to think about the best solution and it [still] needs some time. You have to ask what will happen on a crossroad or a roundabout, so we have to understand this all. It is also a question of structure and regulation.” said Johann Klister, Product Manager for the new 5 Series.

Rest assured that BMW is focusing on occupant safety first before anything else.