Driver Assistance Plus Package

The driver assistance plus package comes in at around $1700. It may only be equipped if the vehicle is already equipped with the executive package. It comes with the active driving assistant, active blind spot detection, side and top view cameras, and speed limit info. This particular package is intended to provide some additional safety features.

The active driving assistant comes with 4 different types of safety features. They are the lane departure warning, frontal collision warning, city collision mitigation, and pedestrian protection. I personally have every available safety feature turned on. There is a row of buttons underneath the lighting system control that you can turn on and off. The frontal collision warning is turned on by default every time the vehicle is turned on. The lane departure warning and the blind spot detection can be turned on and off as well in addition to having the vehicle remember the last setting the systems were before the vehicle was turned off. 

​The lane departure warning system is supposed to vibrate the wheel when the car determines that there is a vehicle in your blind spot and you are trying to merge into that lane. I haven’t had the chance for this system to come into play yet, maybe because I haven’t tried to change lanes with a vehicle in my blind spot or simply I didn’t notice the wheel vibrating at all. However, the vehicle will let you know if it can “see” the lane markers. On the dash, there will be a vehicle symbol in orange and on either side of it will display dashed lines representing the lane markers on the left and right side of the car respectively. 

​The active blind spot detection system gives the driver knowledge that another vehicle is in his/her blind spot. There will be two small triangles near the side mirrors that will turn a solid orange when there is another car in your vehicle’s blind spot. The solid orange colors will flash when the vehicle sense that you are trying to switch lanes while another car is still actively in your blind spot. The system does have its limitations though so it’s not perfect. One has to understand that the blind spot detection system is solely there for blind spot detection and does not provide any detection of vehicles when they are parallel next to you. It is imperative that one does not rely on this system alone to switch lanes as your vehicle may not clear other vehicles even though the blind spot detection system detects no vehicle. The system can detect when another car is approaching you from behind but isn’t so great when you are passing another vehicle. Sometimes when another vehicle is fast approaching, the system is not immediate and the blind spot warning system may take longer to respond. With these limitations in mind, the blind spot monitoring system is great for a peace of mind knowing that some piece of technology is trying to protect the driver.

The top and side view cameras provide a 270° degree view of the vehicle when used in conjunction with the rear camera. There is not front camera so one cannot determine if the vehicle will hit a parking stop or some other obstruction. The park distance control will not pick up all obstacles every time. The side cameras are located underneath the frontal reflectors. The top cameras are located beneath the side mirrors. The side cameras are useful when you are trying to pull out onto a street but your vision of oncoming traffic in each direction is blocked by parked vehicles on the curb. So this system allows you to stick your vehicle out just enough so that the side cameras can see and display that image to the iDrive system. This lets the driver know if it is safe to pull out further and check again for vehicles and other objects. The top cameras give the driver almost a complete view of the car except for the front. The cameras make backing up into a small parking spot or parking on the curb an easy job. The cameras don’t pick up white parking lines that well so you might have to look really closely to see the lines. It’s particularly hard to see during the day under bright sunlight. I personally don’t use the side and top cameras that often but when I do need them, they definitely make my day easier and make sure that I don’t curb my wheels or worse. ​

​The speed limit info is displayed on the heads up display when the HUD is in classic mode and on the dash when the HUD is in M mode. There is a camera located at the top of the windshield near the rear view mirror. It allows the car to see the speed limit signs on the side of the road and display it to the driver. I do not believe that the system uses GPS to determine the speed limit info. Once the vehicle passes by a speed limit sign, it takes about a couple of seconds for the vehicle to change the speed limit info on the HUD or dash. I think that this feature is quite nice since it’s difficult to pay attention to the speed limit signs when there are a lot of people or other obstructions in the road. If any readers are going to do European delivery of their vehicle, this option is nice since the speed limit info will be displayed in mph. In Europe the speed limit is in kph but the M3/M4 does not have an kph markings, only mph. The system will automatically convert kph to mph so it will be much easier to drive in Europe and stick to the posted speed limits.