BMW Club of America bans cars with Collision Avoidance Tech

[Thirdgen89GTA]

So, how long before no BMWs can participate in BMWCCA events? I think that ruling is going a bit too far as the tech is going to ingratiate itself into just about every car with 15 years. Just like ABS is now mandated by federal law.

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The BMW Car Club of America has long been one of the more strict track day (often referred to as High Performance Drivers’ Education or HPDE) groups to run with, infamously banning many popular convertibles and other open-top cars from running without a full roll cage and driver arm restraints out of safety concerns.

The Genesee Valley chapter in New York took the group’s tendency to err on the side of caution one step further, and recently banned cars with collision avoidance technology from their track events. It doesn’t even matter if the tech can be turned off—if it’s in the car, the whole car has to go.

Not all chapters are doing it, but its being discussed. Which is a bit funny being that BMW's will probably be early adopters across the board.

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[IDAFC21]

Thats one of the few bits of tech i DONT have on my 235.

 

[Angela@KRWINS]

Neither do I. That is about the only option I don't have on my car...

 

[Bru]

I'd like to know what situations they've encountered and what caused them to ban these cars.

 

[sickmint79]

I'd like to know what situations they've encountered and what caused them to ban these cars.

sometimes car 2 comes up fast on car 1 in a course. maybe closely followed by car 3. there are times when you may be on someone's ass to put pressure on them to let you pass cuz they are not letting you - already a higher risk situation where you both are more incline to make mistakes, and car 2 is putting some trust in car 1 not to panic brake or do something erratic already. but just fasting moving (not riding someone waiting for a point by) it's possible for 2 to come hot on 1 and 3 to be close behind. if 2 forgot to turn off the helpers, the car could OH NOES apply some serious brakes on a straight where car 3 would find this very unexpected, and slam right into him.

 

[Bru]

Are these theoretical situations or have they actually happened?

 

[sickmint79]

that's absolutely how people drive - it's no stretch to think that situation could happen if the helpers "helped"

 

[Bru]

Sorry, I should have clarified. Is there a documented case of a FCW on-track incident, or is it all precautionary?

 

[sickmint79]

the latter

 

[Thirdgen89GTA]

I don't think anything has actually happened at an event yet. I think its all just people freaking out of the liability of such a thing.

Time to add a note in the wavers to disable it, and take note of any models where its not defeatable.

 

[Intel]

So on another forum they are talking about this.

I believe some BMW's also had something that would decide if you were overheating your brakes based on equations since there was no real brake caliper heat sensor. Most of these can be turned off either through the system or through hacking the can bus codes.

"Not a BMW, but I had a rental new generation Impala go into full panic stop collision avoidance alert while driving south on a fortunately no-traffic late night ride on the 101 south of SFO headed to Monterey about a year ago. "

"From personal experience, it's extremely dangerous. Did a track day at AMP in my dad's e63 a few years back, had a train of cars behind me and one car in front. Turning into 6, the brake assist recognized the car in front braking and ended up going into what felt like 10/10ths of the brake pedal without any input from me."

the big issues is making sure everyone for sure turns these off every time they go out on track. I know at least once I have forgotten to turn off traction control. And that thing barely does anthing stupid other then cutting throttle if the rear wheels are slipping.

 

[b4black]

What happens if someone covers the sensors with duct tape? I assume the system freaks out and tries to brake or goes into fault mode.

Require duct tape over the sensors for a visual confirmation the system is disabled.....


(maybe not actual duct tape, but you get the idea)

 

[torquelover]

I've been in and behind cars with this tech when it goes wrong and it sucks major ass.

 

[smug]

The FCW in my car will go and activate for no reason at times. The camera must see something and then the yea. I hate it.