Not all electric assists are created equally. Many are designed to help you avoid collisions or park your car, but BMW has taken to this year’s International Consumer and Electronics Show with ActiveAssist, a tool specifically designed to help make you a better driver in extreme situations.
Fitted onto the 2015 M235i and the 6 Series Gran Coupe, BMW says ActiveAssist works to ensure “maximum safety up to the car’s dynamic limit.” The system is autonomous, setting the car on a preset path as the system monitors what’s going on with the car’s grip levels. If it detects understeer or oversteer, it reacts by altering brake and steering inputs to adjust the car’s trajectory.
“Look mom! No hands!” says the driver of this M235i.
Handout, BMW
This means, in what BMW calls “demanding driving situations”, ActiveAssist can help you run an autocross course and even drive in a circle, regardless of how much grip each tire has. Basically, ActiveAssist will set and maintain a steady course while doing doughnuts in the snow or while drifting. BMW says the bells and whistles that makes ActiveAssist tick, specifically the stability control and the electric steering, are fitted its current cars and promises to debut this new technology in its production cars in the near future.
