Most of us would love to have a chauffeur driven luxury car or limousine on hand to drive us wherever we needed to go without ever having to worry about the mundane concerns of having to control the car we are riding in. Well unfortunately not everyone has the opportunity to have their own hired help on hand around the clock, but what you can have instead is the new BMW 650i which can drive you around almost as effortlessly as a chauffeur.
The latest technology to make it into the BMW 6 Series is Active Cruise Control with Stop & Go Function. This means that – in theory – you can drive around town in your new luxury car, without having to worry about any fancy footwork, or any footwork at all.
The system works by focussing on the vehicle in front and maintaining a safe distance which driving, and pulling up to a stop behind that vehicle when required too. The BMW’s system does of course fall down when there are no vehicles in front of you, and for example, when you are taking a tight corner and your car can no longer see the car in front of it because it has rounded the bend.
However, in steady traffic is has been found to be possible to drive across cities without ever having to worry about a brake or accelerator pedal, if you can handle it. Since the new BMW’s automatic braking and accelerating system is constantly working out its speed and measurements, it knows the exact amount of time it needs to successfully brake, which can sometimes be considered less time that would be allowed by most drivers.
But while the 650i may seem to live dangerously, it can be impatient and if it sits in traffic at a complete stand still for more than two seconds, it will revert to manual operation, but this can be simply reset again when you get on the move. There are also safety features which will correct for other contingencies, for example if the car detects any understeer for example, it can take care of that too.
However, if this all sounds a little too technical, and a little too much like hard work – you do still have to steer after all – there are still plenty of chauffeur driven BMWs out there for hire.