BMW's New Night Vision System

18-August-2008

(Ignore the left-hand drive factor of this picture!)

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We've heard of cars that can park themselves, ones that won't let you drive if you've had too much to drink, and others that auto-dial 000 if you're in serious trouble... and now you can add one that detects pedestrians in the dark to the list!

We're talking about the gadget in next year's BMW 7 Series. You see, BMW is the first car maker in the world to introduce a Night Vision system which can detect and then warn drivers of pedestrians, animals and crash-worthy objects on or near the road.

"According to official statistics, 43 per cent of fatal Australian accidents occur at night, even though most driving occurs during the day," says Guenther Seemann, BMW Group Australia Managing Director.

"BMW's new generation Night Vision system will further help avoid accidents at night."

How it works

The Night Vision system has a thermal imagining camera that provides a moving video image. This allows the driver to recognise people, animals and other objects, beyond the reach of headlights, in a high-resolution presentation in the central control display.

A control unit analyses video data and specifically searches for pedestrians, then highlights their whereabouts in yellow on the screen.

If the system senses a person at the side of the road, moving toward the road or already standing on the road surface, the driver is warned in good time by  a symbol in the control display.

The same information is also presented on the windscreen right in front of the driver's eyes via the Head-Up Display.

No 'crying wolf'...

To minimise the number of warnings and to focus on pedestrians really in danger, Night Vision carefully analyses each situation, restricting its warnings to pedestrians in an 'out of bounds' area determined as a function of speed, the steering angle, etc.

History of the system

In Australia, the BMW 7 Series was the first car from the Bavarian luxury maker available with Night Vision in 2006.

Following its debut in BMW's flagship, Night Vision was offered in the 5 Series Sedan, 5 Series Touring, 6 Series Coupé and 6 Series Convertible, opening up this driver assistance system to a larger group of Australian drivers.

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