In a Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment (VSSA) report filed with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), BMW said it plans to introduce what could become the first system on U.S. roads to qualify as “Level 3” conditional automation by SAE’s standards. By way of review, SAE Level 3 involves automated driving rather than driver support features (Levels 0, 1, and 2). Level 4 means that the system controls all aspects of the driving tasks, including when a driver doesn’t respond appropriately to requests to intervene, while Level 5 is entirely autonomous.
BMW’s system is coming with its iNext EV, an all-new, all-electric production vehicle arriving possibly as early as 2021 (Fig. 1). The iNext will feature the automaker’s 5th-generation eDrive system, which is reported to offer up to 530 hp [...]
