One of BMW’s test vehicles, in this case an iX electric SUV, caused a serious accident in Germany that resulted in one dead and nine wounded. As for the number of victims, there is no doubt, but the same does not happen in terms of the conditions in which the BMW iX was driven. According to the local police, it was a test vehicle, developing an autonomous driving system. the bmw deniesstating that the unit that caused the accident was indeed a test car, but it was not being driven by a “computer”, but by the driver behind the wheel.
According to the German police, the BMW iX was driving at 5:00 p.m. on the B28 road in the direction of Ulm. At Römerstein, the SUV turned left. toward oncoming traffic, for a still unexplained reason, and collided with a Citroën owned by a 70-year-old driver. The Citroën ended up changing lanes due to the collision, crashing into a Seat Alhambra that was carrying a driver and passenger, both in their 30s, whose vehicle caught fire. The iX continued to roll until it collided head-on with a Mercedes Vito, driven by a 32-year-old man, who saw his 33-year-old passenger die from his injuries.
The German Auto Motor und Sport published the photo in which the BMW iX appears after colliding with the Mercedes Vito, in which one died
The iX was carrying five people, including the 43-year-old driver. In addition to who was behind the wheel, passengers aged 31, 47 and 42 were traveling on board, the latter being a woman who was traveling accompanied by her son. baby, just a year and a half.
Testing the autonomous driving technology of a vehicle with five people on board, including a baby, is something unusualthus the explanation given by those responsible for BMW, who assured the police that the test vehicle was not performing tests related to the autonomous driving system. However, the possibility that the brand’s technicians have decided to demonstrate to colleagues or friends the behavior of the SUV in these conditions cannot be ruled out. The explanation has not yet been advanced, but it will be easy to determine what triggered this accident, since everything is recorded in this type of vehicle, not only the data provided by the sensors, but also the images collected by the cameras.
The BMW iX sported a decal identifying the vehicle as an independent model.
Although BMW does not provide the authorities with evidence that its iX SUV was (or was not) driven by an autonomous system, without the intervention of a human being (which influences liability for the accident, before the law), it remains to ser He hoped that the German government would not back down from the opening it has revealed to host autonomous driving tests in certain places.
Source: Observadora
