BMW 320i unintended acceleration and brake failure
Yesterday, November 11, 2018, at around 2:45 PM, I entered a
parking garage in Miami Beach to park my BMW 320i. I proceeded to the 3rd
level, where there was a suitable space. I fully stopped the car, as I always
do. No sudden moves. I do not do sudden moves. Then, as I proceeded to gently
accelerate the car, it accelerated out of control, and as I slammed the brake
pedal, it would not work. The car only stopped through the timely intervention
of a concrete wall.
This is, of course, the simplest of car operations, messed
up by a clear software glitch.
I am writing this post for several reasons, not the least of
which is establishing a public record of the incident, for I do not know where
this will take me.
Second, a word of advice. Even when you are parking a modern
car, starting from zero, you have to be extra careful. So, always have your
hand on the emergency hand brake. I had not enough time to think of this, and
honestly, historically BMWs are supposed to be among the top 3, 5 safest cars. I could have avoided the
damage to the car’s front end, had I used the hand brake. But the question
would still remain, “could this happen again?”.
Thank God, this did not happen at a busy street, and I did
not hit a pedestrian, animal or other people’s property. Also, it did not
happen at speed in a highway, where the benefit of hand brake assistance would
be totally useless, in fact, it might have caused a worse accident than hitting
a car in front.
A forethought: I have been around computers and computerized
devices for thirty years. Enough to know that computers and computerized
devices are anything but flawless. Yes, technology has expanded to amazing
levels, but flaws are still all over, and very frequent. This incident was
obviously caused by a software flaw. A recent “The Economist” article says that
BMWs are “basically mobile computers”, something the company is obviously proud
of. This, however, was not an isolated incident, according to a quick internet
search. It is not a BMW specific flaw, either. This also leads me to a scary
thought, the possibility of all or most vehicles in the USA being self-driven,
and guided through congested GPS. Given the current stage of computer meddling
in driving, in the simplest car operation, I believe that the self-driven car
is OK for a Jetsons episode, but we do live in a real world, not a cartoon.
Hope this is the first and last time I will suffer this type
of incident.
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