Active pedestrian safety

[740I_yeye]

So my car stated that it had active pedestrian safety on the option list. today I checked it out to see if it worked but it didnt do anything. I tried to look for the setting but I cant seem to find it. I dont have the intelligent safety button and I was wondering, does that mean the car actually doesnt have this feature as I bought it from a dealer and they stated that it did...

[AP]

wait for someone to cross the road and don't slow down. If the car stops, you have it, if you run them over, it hasn't!

sorry I being silly. if its the same as the 5, its not an option you can select or deselect. Don't rely on it obviously, a last resort.

on my 540 its activated just once in nearly 15000 miles, when someone stepped out into the road to get in their parked car. I didn't judge it to be an issue but the car did and applied full braking much to my and the pedestrians' surprise!

[mrgicm]

You would have to hit them in order to find out. That is an option if you hit a pedestrian the airbags under your hood deploy and the entire hood rises.

[740I_yeye]

Originally Posted by mrgicm

You would have to hit them in order to find out. That is an option if you hit a pedestrian the airbags under your hood deploy and the entire hood rises.

yeah sadly its quite misleading. I tried it a few times and it didnt stop and I didnt have the intelligent safety button. so I searched on the cars manual in the idrive and turns out its just a airbag under the bonnet smh

[Qsilver7]

It sounds like you're conflating (confusing) the BMW Active Pedestrian Safety system with the BMW Pedestrian Warning with City Brake Activation.

The first is protection for the pedestrian...to reduce the amount of injury that may occur if you ran into them. The "active" part is that you have to do nothing for these protections to occur...much like the airbags in your car are "active" and will deploy upon impact in a crash.

Operation principle of the active pedestrian protection system:

The system consists of peripheral sensors in the front part of the vehicle and the airbag control unit, which triggers actuators that can, for example, lift the engine hood within a fraction of a second. This allows for the pedestrian to impact against a more effective crumple zone, thereby minimizing the risk of injury.

The second system is part of the Intelligent Safety features...and may include audible/visual warnings and automatic braking to help prevent hitting a pedestrian.

[AP]

yes in the case of hitting someone, the bonnet will pop up to increase the distance from the boot to the hard objects in the engine bay and cushion the person so some extent so they don't hit something hard (like the engine).

The other I've experienced as I mentioned earlier just the once.

All these safety systems are great but I treat as a bonus, ideally I don't want to put any of them to the test as they will not be 100% infallible.

[Qsilver7]

What makes me apprehensive about the active pedestrian safety system is that the car owner could possibly end up having to fix the system if it deploys even if the car never hits anyone.

What if a pedestrian on a skateboard starts to dart in front of your oncoming vehicle...and the system deploys...but the skateboarder jumps out of the way in time and isn't hit or injured. They get to pick up their skateboard and walk away...but you're stuck with a vehicle that has deployed and your hood and other stuff may be out-of-whack.

That sucks (even though a life was saved from any peril or injury)...and you're stuck fixing your car.