To the extent that historical press releases reference BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC as the manufacturer of certain X model vehicles, the referenced vehicles are manufactured in South Carolina with a combination of U.S. origin and imported parts and components.
PressClub USA · Article.
BMW Group Integrated Safety Concept Highlight of 2011 Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Conference
Wed Jun 15 15:49:00 CEST 2011 Press Release
National Harbor, MD – June 15, 2011… Beginning today at the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Conference the BMW Group will showcase its Integrated Safety Concept which provides a holistic approach to vehicle and occupant safety. Currently significant improvements in passive safety technologies such as the safety cell, seat belts, airbags and sensors have lifted the safety performance of modern vehicles to a very high level. The BMW 5 Series, a benchmark in terms of safety, embodies these achievements, having been recognized by independent organizations worldwide with the highest safety awards.
National Harbor, MD – June 15, 2011… Beginning today at the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Conference the BMW Group will showcase its Integrated Safety Concept which provides a holistic approach to vehicle and occupant safety. Currently significant improvements in passive safety technologies such as the safety cell, seat belts, airbags and sensors have lifted the safety performance of modern vehicles to a very high level. The BMW 5 Series, a benchmark in terms of safety, embodies these achievements, having been recognized by independent organizations worldwide with the highest safety awards.
- US NCAP - The only luxury sedan with 5 stars under the new more stringent rating
- IIHS - Top Safety Pick
- Euro NCAP - 5 stars; awarded as “best performing car of 2010 in its class“; best pedestrian protection of all classes
- Euro NCAP - Advanced Award for Enhanced Automatic Emergency Call
- Australasian NCAP - 5 stars
- New Zealand Automobile Association - Motoring Excellence Award 2010 “Safest Vehicle of the Year”
Nevertheless, after all these years of passionate development, the benefits resulting from additional efforts in passive safety have begun to decrease; in other words, a classical “point of diminishing returns” has been reached. Considering these limits, the question that arises is: What are the most effective solutions moving forward to take vehicle safety to the next level and thereby continue to further reduce traffic fatalities and injuries?
It has always been the general understanding of BMW that safety goes far beyond the few milliseconds of a crash. This philosophy has pushed the company to research, develop, and include many Active Safety innovations into current BMW models. Some of these include:
- Lane Departure Warning
- Night Vision with Pedestrian Detection
- Active Blind Spot Detection
- Active Cruise Control with Stop&Go
- BMW Assist with enhanced Automatic Collision Notification
- Full color Head-up Display
BMW currently uses sensor data from the aforementioned technologies to identify potential risk while driving and, if necessary, to warn the driver or even intervene automatically. The objective and potential of BMW´s future safety systems is to enhance the availability and utilization of the information before and after the crash in order to:
- First and foremost help avoid accidents through advanced active safety technologies which can enhance the driver´s ability to react in critical situations and, only if necessary, take the control from the driver and intercede autonomously;
- Extend the potential of passive safety technologies should a collision occur;
- Save precious minutes during rescue and treatment thanks to ground-breaking technology that predict the risk of severe injury.
This holistic approach,based on real-world effectiveness, clearly aims at enhanced vehicle occupant and road user protection by incorporating active safety, passive safety and post-crash technologies into one visionary concept - BMW INTEGRATED SAFETY.
As part of this Integrated Safety Concept BMW will be demonstrating and showcasing a number of current and future safety technologies including:
- Enhanced Automatic Collision Notification
- Pre-collision: future camera-based Collision Avoidance System
enables the vehicle to:
- Warn the driver of risks within his or her driving environment.
- If necessary brake automatically to help avoid colliding with another car
- Or Brake automatically to help avoid hitting a pedestrian
- Automatically synch up the front seat belts in case that a collision is unavoidable.
Advanced BMW Motorcycle Technology
This commitment to a holistic view of safety applies not only to BMW drivers but BMW Motorcycle riders as well. In 1989, BMW became the first manufacturer to adapt Anti-lock Braking System (ABS) technology from the automobile to the motorcycle. Earlier this year BMW Motorrad USA announced that beginning in model year 2012 BMW will be the first manufacturer to include ABS as standard equipment on all motorcycles sold in the US. The all-new BMW K1600GT takes the adaptation of proven automotive active safety technology to the motorcycle to new heights including:
- Adaptive Headlights
- Dynamic Traction Control
- Tire Pressure Monitor system.
As BMW Motorrad is always cutting-edge in motorcycle safety, the research continues with the BMW Motorrad Advanced Safety Concept (based upon the BMW K 1600 GT) featuring all new systems such as Emergency Call or Collision Mitigation and even Vehicle 2 Vehicle Communication.
The BMW Motorrad Advanced Safety Concept will be on display at the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles Conference in BMW booth along with vehicle safety displays.