In Germany, one person was killed and nine were critically wounded when a “self-steering” electric BMW test vehicle swerved into oncoming traffic, causing a sequence of crashes involving four cars.
On Monday, the electric BMW iX, which was carrying five passengers, including an 18-month-old child, veered out of its lane at a road curve in the southern town of Reutlingen, brushing an incoming Citron.
The BMW, which costs at least £77,300, then collided head-on with a Mercedes-Benz van, killing a 33-year-old woman inside.
The driver of the Citroen, a 70-year-old woman, lost control of her vehicle and collided with another vehicle carrying two passengers, knocking it off the road and causing it to catch fire.
The traffic police have initiated an inquiry into the incident’s cause, which allegedly involves an autonomous test car.
BMW admitted that one of their vehicles was involved in the accident, but said that the vehicle in issue lacked self-driving capabilities.
The car is equipped with Level 2 driver assistance technologies, in which case “the driver is always responsible,” according to an email statement from a spokesperson.
According to BMW’s website, such systems may autonomously stop, accelerate, and, unlike Level 1 systems, take over steering.
The automaker said that it was in close communication with the authorities to determine the precise cause of the accident.
Michael Schaal, a spokesperson for the Reutlingen police department, said that four rescue helicopters were engaged in the medical response and that the wounded were transported to other hospitals in the area.
The BMW’s 43-year-old driver, three people aged 31, 42, and 47, and an infant of 18 months were all in the test car.
Schaal said that authorities had not yet interviewed people involved in the collision.
The vehicle involved in the accident was an autonomous electric test vehicle, police said in a statement. Whether or whether the 43-year-old (driver) was steering the vehicle is the subject of an inquiry.
BMW admitted that one of its test cars was involved in an accident in Reutlingen, but disputed that it was completely autonomous.
BMW said that, for data protection considerations, the vehicle was obliged to be designated as a test vehicle since it was capturing video.
‘We are in the process of investigating the exact circumstances (of the crash),’ BMW said. ‘Of course we are in close contact with authorities.’
In recent years, there have been a number of accidents with self-driving automobiles.
In 2018, one of Uber’s Volvo test vehicles hit and killed Elaine Herzberg, 49, as she crossed a road in Tempe, Arizona, outside of a crosswalk.
Before the collision, the backup driver for Uber in the self-driving Volvo SUV was reportedly streaming “The Voice” on her phone and gazing downward.
The National Transportation Safety Board reported that the Volvo’s autonomous driving system detected Herzberg approximately six seconds prior to the collision, but did not apply the brakes because the system designed to automatically apply the brakes in potentially hazardous situations had been disabled.
A Volvo emergency braking system was also disabled.
In July, US officials revealed they were conducting an investigation into the death of a lady who was injured by a 39-year-old Tesla driver who, according to reports, was under the influence of narcotics and using Autopilot when the vehicle went airborne and killed her.
During the event, a 39-year-old man was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of narcotics.
Frank Shoaf, who was driving on Othello Avenue at 8:30 a.m. while high from huffing (inhaling household goods), is thought to be involved in the incident. He acknowledged to authorities that he ran a red light, hit a dip that caused him to fly two feet in the air, and then struck Cassandra May, 40.
Since 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the United States has started more than 35 special collision investigations involving Tesla cars suspected of using advanced driver assistance systems such as Autopilot.
A 66-year-old Tesla driver and a 67-year-old passenger were killed earlier this year in Florida after their vehicle rear-ended a tractor-trailer.