BMW 7 Series to offer Level 3 automated driving in Germany

BMW has announced that its 7 Series will offer Level 3 automated driving in Germany. The new feature, which the firm terms as BMW Personal Pilot L3, will be available for order come December and will be fitted in vehicles from March 2024.

BMW Personal Pilot L3 will control the car's speed, distance from the vehicle ahead, and its position within the lane on motorways at speeds of up to 60km/h, and differs from a Level 2 system of autonomous driving by allowing the driver to divert his/her attention away from the road.

This means that the driver will be able to edit e-mails, for example, or engage more deeply in telephone calls while on the go, or perhaps even catch a video stream from the car's central display during a journey. This makes the BMW Personal Pilot L3 an ideal solution for maximising time spent when in slow moving traffic during motorway commutes. BMW states that the advanced sensors fitted to the 7 Series allows the technology to be used, even in the dark.

BMW is already offering a SAE Level 2 automated driving function with the BMW 5 Series, alongside an Active Lane Change Assistant feature that can be activated when the car detects that the driver is looking into the side mirrors. The 5 Series also comes with a Steering and Lane Control Assistant feature that can take control over the car's speed, the distance to the vehicle in front and the car's steering when travelling at speeds of up to 130km/h.