BMW Promotes Active Safety

BMW AG wants to put the auto safety industry on a new diet.

After years of pouring money into expensive crash testing focused on passive-safety measures such as airbags, structural components and restraints, the German auto maker says it is time for government regulators to get serious about furthering collision-avoidance technologies.

The auto industry became serious about developing vehicle safety 25 years ago, says Josef Haberl, BMW Group director-vehicle safety.

Since then, billions of dollars have been spent improving passive safety elements on the federal level, while active safety development mostly has been led by voluntary efforts by OEMs and suppliers.

Haberl estimates passive systems have reached a level of 95%-100% effectiveness. He insists that squeezing additional improvement would eat precious development dollars that could go to forwarding more advanced collision-avoidance technology.

He cites some of the crash-avoidance components BMW has introduced voluntarily, including run-flat tires, adaptive headlights, rain-sensing brakes, active suspension and steering systems and brake lamps that get bigger and brighter during panic stops.

BMW joins a growing list of companies calling on federal regulators — both in the U.S. and abroad — to step up research initiatives into technologies such as electronic stability control, lane departure warning systems and drowsy-driver mitigation.

Haberl points to the need to better develop vehicle-to-vehicle communication, for example. The promising technology, which would need the cooperation of roadway infrastructure, suppliers and auto makers, could allow vehicles to warn one another of an imminent collision ahead.