2024 BMW Ix

Recently purchased used iX and successfully used the Parking Assistant Professional about a dozen times to back into my home garage using 5-point maneuver (driveway layout visible from aerial photo from address provided with report; drove in straight passed spot on garage’s left side looking in, other SUV parked in right spot, back into perpendicular spot in garage). After recording a new 3-point path, I tried it for the first time. During that attempt, the SUV suddenly reversed too fast to stop before crashing into another car in the garage. The vehicle initially followed the recorded path, then paused during first reverse because of an apparent obstruction (car approaching leaves on bush along driveway). After manually moving the SUV backwards a few feet along path to clear obstruction, I attempted to resume the maneuver. The screen showed the words “Resume path” (think there were up to 4 words, but this was only option on right side of parking interface), although flickering to say “Show path.” The vehicle then began to reverse. It was only ~6 feet, so wasn’t worried about acceleration for about half a second or so. Car continued to accelerate in reverse so fast that when I realized it wasn’t going to stop for the other car I had only got my foot on the brake when it hit the other car. Photos: IMG_3223 is iX showing bumper damage. IMG_3220 & -21 are other car, with bumper scratches and broken taillight. The event happened too quickly to allow braking, and the obstruction sensors didn’t even beep, let alone stop the routine. Damage to both cars appears to be relatively minor, but if a person had been standing near the other vehicle, they would have been seriously injured or killed. This behavior appears similar to NHTSA Complaint Nos. 11589034, 11569633, and 11546743. I bought this car in part because of the automated parking features that I am now too terrified to use.

Using BMW's Parking Assistant Professional feature, I recorded and saved a backup parking maneuver into my garage on 5/7/2024. The idea is that this saved maneuver can later be recalled and used as the car approaches the same location as where it was recorded. This function worked well the first 10 times or so that I used it. However, this past Sunday (5/12/2024), as I pressed on the touch screen to start this parking maneuver, the car did not perform the maneuver as it had the previous 10 times. Instead, the car went straight back and hit the wall. I have reported this glitch to BMW USA and have not received any response.

Issue 1- Car Starts to slowdown on its own when on self-drive mode on freeways – Has happened 3 X - service center has not be able to reproduce the error but many people on BMW forums has complained about the same in various driving conditions. Ours happened on a straight road with no car ahead of us but a car behind us which nearly caused an accident and a lot of anxiety . Our car went down from 70MPH to 40 and wouldn’t let me accelerate as well . Issue 2 - Front and Rear self-parking modes don’t work – Always have an error and goes in the wrong direction and doesn’t detect open spaces. For example it can’t decipher between grass and tarmac when the feature is being used in a driveway. Have recorded evidence and the BMW service station says the feature can’t be used on a driveway or garage- no documented evidence or information provided to us at the time of sale and till now . ( evidence of dealer notes also available) - Big safety issue as car goes on grass, hits garage walls, is reversing on side walks Issue 3 Reverse assisted parking doesn’t work flawlessly – even with the foot of the pedal it continues to speed and go fast - don’t think the service center even tried to duplicate this issue. All three are safety concerns for me and my family and is unacceptable. We have video recordings of the last two issues and screenshots are attached . The same have been shared with BMW but no one seems to care