The latest X1 recently had its automatic emergency braking system put through its paces during testing from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IHHS) against 10 other SUVs in its class. Unfortunately for BMW, its SUV came in last place and received no rating.
The IIHS pedestrian autobrake test consists of frontal crash avoidance, headlights, and rear crash prevention tests. Three crash simulations are conducted for each vehicle.
The first mimics a pedestrian quickly entering the street in front of an oncoming vehicle. The second test sees a small child entering the roadway from behind two parked cars. The third test replicates an adult walking along the edge of a lane in the same direction as the vehicle. Testing of the first two scenarios is conducted at 12 mph (19 km/h) and 25 mph (40 km/h), while the third test is performed at 25 mph (40 km/h) and 37 mph (59 km/h).
IIHS awarded four of the 11 SUVs (the Honda CR-V, Subaru Forester, Toyota RAV4, and Volvo XC40) its superior rating. These vehicles were either able to brake without hitting the pedestrians at all in all simulations or were able to brake significantly before making minor contact with the dummy.
Five other vehicles were awarded the Advanced rating, while the Mitsubishi Outlander got the Basic rating. All vehicles outperformed the BMW X1 which didn’t even get a rating as it hit the dummy in every single test. In the 37 mph parallel adult test, the SUV’s pedestrian detection system didn’t even recognize the dummy and smashed straight through it without braking.