[Parforthecourse]

Just bought a 24 X7 and tested out the highway hands free feature this past weekend. Very impressed - works well. However, if you look away for a few seconds the vehicle gives you a "Driver Distraction Detected" message and audible warning. Warning happens too quickly for my liking and wondering if there is a way to either turn off the warning or at least turn off the audible warning. Thanks in advance.

[Delrazdan]

My informal testing has shown it is somewhat speed dependent. At 65~70 mph it was less intrusive and today I was 75~80 mph and it happened very frequently as you described. Even to the point that if scratched my nose it would raise a warning and go to emergency mode of slowing down. Was annoying but can understand liability issues, bmw being v conservative

[streborx]

I just don't get this fascination, bordering on obsession, with hands free driving. Anyone care to confess what exactly he/she is doing with his/her hands that is more important than controlling the direction in which a 3 ton projectile that you're sitting in is moving at 65 mph? Are you really committed to betting your life on a bunch of engineers who assembled an array of sensors and actuators that communicate through a series of microcontrollers executing algorithms that rely on 1's and 0's? Thanks, but I'll keep my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road, for I've worked with many hardware and software engineers.

[sharp]

Originally Posted by streborx

I just don't get this fascination, bordering on obsession, with hands free driving. Anyone care to confess what exactly he/she is doing with his/her hands that is more important than controlling the direction in which a 3 ton projectile that you're sitting in is moving at 65 mph? Are you really committed to betting your life on a bunch of engineers who assembled an array of sensors and actuators that communicate through a series of microcontrollers executing algorithms that rely on 1's and 0's? Thanks, but I'll keep my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road, for I've worked with many hardware and software engineers.

I'm with you here and am interested to learn why people are so willing to trust lives to the driving algorithms. I'm a software engineer with almost 2 decades of experience and I'm yet to see a perfect bug-free system that always operates as expected not only in ideal conditions, but in all edge cases as well. It just doesn't exist. I bet the Highway Assist is no exception. And in case the highway assistant causes a crash it would be very difficult to prove that it was its fault. BMW lawyers will definitely say that the driver wasn't paying attention and it was ultimately his responsibility to control the car. But what if a family member is injured? Is it really worth it? Sorry, but I just don't get it.

I guess I could use the hands free driving very briefly to stretch my body on some long highway trips, but that would be it.

[Caveno]

Originally Posted by sharp

I'm with you here and am interested to learn why people are so willing to trust lives to the driving algorithms. I'm a software engineer with almost 2 decades of experience and I'm yet to see a perfect bug-free system that always operates as expected not only in ideal conditions, but in all edge cases as well. It just doesn't exist. I bet the Highway Assist is no exception. And in case the highway assistant causes a crash it would be very difficult to prove that it was its fault. BMW lawyers will definitely say that the driver wasn't paying attention and it was ultimately his responsibility to control the car. But what if a family member is injured? Is it really worth it? Sorry, but I just don't get it.

I guess I could use the hands free driving very briefly to stretch my body on some long highway trips, but that would be it.

Lol, you’re not a bug free system either. Its substantially less fatiguing and I don’t need to trust the bot I just need to know what it’s doing and be able to take over.

[MystroX5]

I am right there with you as an engineer. I like to use these tools to reduce drivers fatigue on long drives, but I can never commit total faith. I don’t want my car to chauffeur me around. It’s like engineers are designing vehicles for 12 year old boys to get a “gee whiz isn’t that cool” response.
I am a driver first and foremost.

[Parforthecourse]

Yep, way less fatiguing for me when driving for hours to be able to not have my hands on the wheel for stretches of time. May not seem like a big deal, but it is, particularly if, like me, you have back issues. Massage function is not very powerful, but also a big help as well when driving for hours. Of course I'm 58 so that makes a difference as just about everything on my body hurts now.

[crackerjack15]

Originally Posted by streborx

I just don't get this fascination, bordering on obsession, with hands free driving. Anyone care to confess what exactly he/she is doing with his/her hands that is more important than controlling the direction in which a 3 ton projectile that you're sitting in is moving at 65 mph? Are you really committed to betting your life on a bunch of engineers who assembled an array of sensors and actuators that communicate through a series of microcontrollers executing algorithms that rely on 1's and 0's? Thanks, but I'll keep my hands on the wheel and my eyes on the road, for I've worked with many hardware and software engineers.

Hands free is awesome on long interstate highway trips. No, its not perfect, but it allows me to relax and let the car maintain the lane. I use it constantly. Hell, I use the lane keep assist for 80% of my drive to work. I keep my hand on the wheel, but can look around and not have to micro manage keeping it in the lane. I would venture to say that I have more situational awareness and distance vision, because I am not concentrated on the lane. When traffic gets heavy or there are a lot of turns, I shut it off. If you ever get stuck in rush hour traffic that is the best time to use it. I sit back like I'm a passenger and relax my arms and legs. The American dream, at work but don't have to work. Lol

[entendu]

It’s great for stop & go, and for boring stretches of highway. I like to drive my own twisties and surface street, but barreling down the 5 to LA? No thanks..

I have also found the system to be needlessly complex and touchy. For instance, I want to use auto lane change, so I manually look over my shoulder (no side camera popups on signal? Shame…) — but the system interprets that as my not paying attention. Hilariously enough I could just keep looking forward and let the car change its own lane without double-checking and it wouldn’t complain.

I also own a Tesla 3 performance with an older autopilot version and a ‘23 model X plaid with the newer version. Out of all 3 systems I like the 2018 hardware version of autopilot best, but for new cars bmw’s performance is imo better than tesla. If they could fix the attention alarm thing it would be basically perfect.

[streborx]

Interesting that these systems alert the driver that he/she is not paying attention, when it's other drivers who should be alerted to this. After enough mishaps, maybe manufacturers will be required to install rooftop strobe lights to alert other drivers that John is checking stock prices and Mary is applying mascara, while Hal is driving.