Enjoy a relaxed ride along
As a driver of a car, nothing is as boring and at the same time tiring as driving in traffic jams. BMW comes to the rescue, because the 7-series can now do this in Germany itself. BMW is thus following in the footsteps of competitor Mercedes-Benz.
About a year and a half ago, Mercedes-Benz came up with a driver assistance system that makes autonomous driving level 3 possible. This allows you to give up the steering wheel up to a speed of 60 km/h on the highway and sit back in your S-class or EQS. Now BMW is introducing a similar system. The BMW 7 Series can be ordered in Germany from December, after which the first units with this function, called BMW Personal Pilot L3, will hit the road in March next year. The car automatically follows the vehicle in front and keeps itself within the lines in the lane. In the meantime, as drivers, you can quietly watch a video on the central screen.
You may remember that a feature was announced for the new BMW 5 Series earlier this year that allows semi-autonomous driving at much higher speeds. So does the 5-series trump the 7-series in this case? Well, no, because although you can hand over the wheel up to 130 km/h, you still have to pay more attention. That’s called Highway Assistant and it’s a level 2 feature. Personal Pilot L3 is therefore one step higher on the autonomous ladder. There is a good chance that Highway Assistant will soon also be available on the 7-series in Germany, because this is already the case in the US. Unfortunately, all these gadgets are not yet available in the Netherlands, due to local legislation. Still, it is interesting to see what may be coming in the long run.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl