BMW Working on Left Turn Assistant

Slowly, but painfully surely, the cars we see on the roads today are turning into machines that can drive themselves. Cleverly disguised as help tools for drivers who are either too lazy or too dumb to drive the cars on their own, these systems present themselves as breakthroughs in in-car infotainment.

The latest such system, a must-have in a world of lobotomized drivers, is the left turn assistant, currently undergoing testing BMW 5 Series vehicle. Meant as an aid when the driver plans to turn left, the system is designed to work at speeds of up to 10 km/h.

The car’s sensors detect that it is entering the left-turn lane. A separate array of features allows the system to detect cars, trucks and motorcycles and, if it assesses that vehicles are approaching from the opposite direction, it activates an automatic braking input in a low speed range up to 10 km/h to prevent a collision.

All of the braking part takes place without the driver being given a prior warning. After the fact, a warning sound and relevant warning symbols in the instrument cluster and Head-Up Display tell the driver what was about to happen.

“The automated braking function does not trigger dramatic deceleration from high speed, but instead should be viewed as a system that prevents the car from moving off or continuing along its path,” explains BMW. “As soon as the driver engages the brakes himself, the braking input triggered by the left turn assistant is disengaged and the car is “released” again to continue normal driving.”