[foxtrottbravo]

Interesting read on the BMW 7 series Protection vehicle. Here's a tidbit from the field: I've heard, through the grapevine, about a team responsible for the safety of a certain high-profile individual (no names mentioned, of course ). About a year ago, they made a strategic shift away from BMWs as protection vehicles. Why? Because in emergency escape scenarios, it's crucial to be able to move the car even with the doors not fully closed / deliberately open. But with the BMW, if the doors aren't fully closed, the car won't budge. It's a fascinating look at how design features in luxury vehicles can intersect with real-world security needs in unexpected ways.

Disclaimer: I don't have primary knowledge of this, and it's second-hand information from someone I trust personally. As with all such information, grain of salt recommended.

[WirelessGigabit]

It's not luxury only. Any modern car with an automatic that is controlled by wire will do that.

Start car, leave door open, let go of brake and it'll jump in Park. Safety.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Yelchin#Death his death would've been prevented if the feature was implemented earlier.

But, knowing it's a BMW, it probably can be disabled. And it actually still works when you have your seatbelt on (as proof of being in control of the vehicle).

[Neil44]

Mine is a few years old hybrid but you can move it with the door opoen. I only know because occasiionally I've cracked the door to physically watch the rear wheel during a tight manouver. I haven't tried any high speed James Bond stuff though.

[mholm]

This seems surprising to me. This is the sort of feature that I could easily see being controlled by the dealer, via 'coding' (effectively just changing config settings via the OBD2 port). It's a fairly easy process that anyone can do at home with a specialty phone app and a bluetooth OBD2 adapter. Though working with BMW as a third party might be troublesome if they didn't make this a configurable setting.

[genter]

This is the sort of feature that I could easily see being controlled by splicing some wires together. I guess it depends on if it's just a switch or a more intelligent proximity sensor, but surely there's some way to jerry rig it.

[ipython]

There are other 'convenience' features that become problematic in a highly adversarial environment, such as unlocking all the doors when you shift into park, or unlocking the doors and shutting off the fuel supply when an accident is detected. In an emergency situation you may have to ram through a vehicle blockade- I would hate for the car to then suddenly shut down in that case...

[mcpackieh]

Surely defeating that mechanism is simply a matter of replacing a few switches/sensors. How hard could BMW have possibly made this?

[m3kw9]

Paranoia at its finest, I meant the post