2017 540i xDrive (G31) Slams on brakes, no warning, no driver input

Just logged an incident with BMW UK today where for the 5th time (but most recent event serious) the car slammed on the brakes during a tight squeeze between a curb and a parked car. This caused my head to nearly hit the steering wheel (impair my vision) and for me to get sufficient of a fright that it affected my judgement for the next few metres. The brakes were not held on - only a 'stab'. This is obviously a problem with the onboard AI fed by the 360 degree camera view. Hopefully the car will have logged it and Dick Lovett BMW/BMW Germany will be able to get info on the event. Am gonna presume the car uses SLAM data to decide on pre-emptive action. This data may be stored in which case one can potentially work out the clearance tolerances that led to this. Why did the car not stop fully?

 

I've read posts on other forums where similar things have happened. Apparently the system reacts to kerbs and even won't let people drive off their steep driveways because the system "sees" the level ground at the bottom of the drive as an obstacle.

 

Wonder if the following service bulletin for the G30 saloon is related:
https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2018/MC-10145318-9999.pdf

 

Possibly but the steering wheel was close to mid position. I was driving slightly right and at 15MPH.

 

When cars have more electronics with complex software systems that can take control, supposedly for our safety, then there will be more of these unexpected glitches. However sophisticated a computer is, it is only as good as the people that have programmed it and the reliability of its components. As they say, 'Garbage in; garbage out'. But they are in every facet of our lives.

The eminent heart surgeon, Professor Stephen Westaby, said that if he was a patient in need of life saving surgery, he would want a surgeon with 30 years experience and a knife to do the operation, not a robot. I feel the same about cars. I want my safety to be in my own hands when driving, not controlled by by some onboard electronics and software package that some faceless programmer has written. The above is a good example of what can happen.

Sorry that I can't give any technical advice on the solution to your problem.

 

Mine has slammed the brakes on a couple of times (in 11k miles). It's quite alarming when it happens, and one of the times would have been nasty if anybody had been following closely behind. I was approaching traffic lights and wanted the RH lane. I had slowed to about 20mph. There was a queue in the LH lane and traffic coming in the opposite direction (but in its own LH lane). As I pulled out into the RH lane there was an almighty bang as it slammed the brakes on, completely unexpectedly.

Prior to that incident I had the 'jangly bell' noise and flashing dashboard warnings fairly regularly when negotiating double-parked roads. I have since set the sensitivity to minimum (it was on the middle setting, as delivered) and it hasn't happened any more, but it's a constant fear and quite worrying that big brother thought it knew best and every time it has happened it was wrong.

 

UPDATE: So (somewhat inevitably) this is in part down to RTFM but it still highlights many of the shortcomings raised above. Here's what I got from Dick Lovett BMW, Swindon: The car was initially hooked up to CANBUS and diagnostics run which unsurprisingly showed that the car was up to date in software terms and not reporting any errors/issues. They called me to tell me this was the case and were suggesting I collected the car. I reiterated the events that had occurred and told them this wasn't a good enough reply. A day later they called to say they'd spoken to Germany and that 'Germany had logged into the car'. They also said that the 'Front-End Collision Avoidance' system was configurable (I knew this was set to medium). What I didn't know, and neither did they (RTFM) was that there was a button on central dash next to the hazard light button that was for 'Intelligent Safety'. This system uses a forward-looking stereoscopic camera pair either side of the rear-view mirror. There are three possible settings: a.) Full on, b.) Individual setting (one of 3 levels) and c.) Off. To switch it off one has to hold the button for 3 seconds. Upon starting the car, the OFF setting is reset to either ON or Individual depending on which was last set. When on 'Individual' the LED ring surrounding the button is meant to go Orange from Green, but this does not happen (stays green). When OFF the Led goes off. Seems to work and so I'm a lot happier - I now drive 'Individual' set LOW. This was not in my previous 535d and so the lesson has to be 'assume change' and explore all buttons . Finally - after this event I noticed that I was no longer able to deploy the wing mirrors to record a remote 360 camera view. Did they downgrade my firmware?

 

Interesting to read your update. At least you now know how to switch it off.

IMO many of these new electronic safety features have been developed to a point, but the owners of the cars are then used as testers to find the glitches in the systems, much like programmers send out Beta versions of computer software for users to develop. Or is that just too cynical?

Given the choice, I would not add any options like that. Advisory systems that just impart information are one thing, but suddenly taking control out of the hands of the driver is another. Autonomous driven cars are still a long way off, I think.

 

Yes it'd make more sense if BMW are gathering data on such incidents and using it to feed the AI and neural networks that ultimately will drive cars autonomously. Am convinced as you say that they are using us and the physical locations we drive (SLAM data) to inform backend algorithms... its the 'let's assume the worst' mentality that peeves me. Surely they 'know' my driving by now?

 

Good update, thank you. Maybe the wing mirror cameras are disabled when you are in individual; mode?

 

Further to my comments expressed above, I think the recent crash of the Boeing 737 Max illustrates why onboard computer systems taking over are not necessarily a good idea, and could, in some circumstances, be downright dangerous.

Evidence from the 737 crash, shows that the disaster was most likely caused by the plane's anti-stall software taking over control from the pilots who did everything they could to try and keep the aircraft in the air.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-crash-pilots-followed-procedure-report-finds

The following quote say it all;

"Despite the pilots' hard work and full compliance with the emergency procedures, it was very unfortunate that they could not recover the aeroplane from the persistence of nose diving"

 

Agree - and this will happen more and more when the promised speed limiters come in. You'll be on the M6 at 70, the car will read a 30mph sign on a parallel road or bridge and slam the anchors on without warning, getting you rear-ended by the Audi tailgating you...

 

When and if the speed limiters are mandatory, i expect the resale value of previous models will shoot up due to the demand? The Nanny State is well and truly here in the UK. We are constantly being told what we cannot do or say. We can't even criticize useless politicians any more, and there are some that deserve everything they get.