{"id":13489,"date":"2021-11-15T09:43:15","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T14:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/auto\/?p=13489"},"modified":"2021-11-15T09:43:15","modified_gmt":"2021-11-15T14:43:15","slug":"bmw-7-series-level-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=13489","title":{"rendered":"BMW 7 Series Level 3 Autonomy Won’t be Available in U.S. Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

A little while back, BMW announced that the next-gen 7 Series<\/a> will come with Level 3<\/a> autonomous driving, right out of the box. \u201cLevel 3 you will see from us in the 7 Series next year,\u201d said BMW\u2019s director of development Frank Weber. \u201cIt\u2019s a function you can buy. It will be ready to go at the launch of the 7 Series.\u201d However, the function won\u2019t be read in the U.S. market. At least not right away.<\/p>\n

At the moment, there are no U.S. regulations that allow Level 3 autonomy (psst, it\u2019s how you know Tesla\u2019s Autopilot isn\u2019t Level 3), so BMW won\u2019t be able to ship the 7 Series here with the new technology. In Europe, however, there are regulations that allow Level 3 and actually put the insurance onus on the automakers in the event of a crash.<\/p>\n

Audi ran into a very similar issue a few years back, with the launch of the then-new Audi A8. It had all of the technological capability for Level 3 autonomy, with Audi\u2019s Traffic Jam Assist that would allow the car to drive entirely on its own during slow-moving highway traffic, up to speeds of around 30 mph. However, U.S. regulations wouldn\u2019t allow it to launch here, so it was a Euro-only feature (even if Audi did show it off in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is set in New York).<\/p>\n