Automatic Awesome

I’m fresh off a 5 night escape to the North Shore of Oahu where I had an automotive epiphany. There, my wife and I rented a nice, but fairly boring 2023 BMW X3 in a lovely shade of fairly boring grey. There are dozens of reviews of the new X3 all over the interweb, more professionally written than I could ever write, so go read them if that’s what you’re after. But since you’re here and I desperately need your web traffic, I’ll save you the trouble and summarize them all in the one sentence. It’s fine and it’s forgettable. Now onto something far more interesting!

The epiphany I had while driving this X3 was anything but forgettable. This X3 was equipped with the best convenience feature I’ve ever experienced. Better than cruise control. Better than an onboard coffee maker. Even better than heated seats during February! I think its a feature someone very technologically savvy could make into a retro-fit kit for most modern cars. (Feel free to take my multi-million dollar idea, but more on that later.) This BMW X3 was equipped with “automatic hold” brakes. Also known as "Comfort Stop" in BMW speak. It's perfect for lazy, modern drivers and people who love efficiency. So basically everyone.

With the push of a button labeled “Auto H”, the X3 held itself at a stand still every time I came to a complete stop. Leaving me free to hover my foot over the gas pedal, waiting for the light to turn green. Or just relax for a few seconds. I’ll admit it took a bit of time to trust, though once you do its absolutely awesome. The automatic hold brakes default to off every time you start the car, so you have to press the button to engage it each time you drive. Once you come to a complete stop, a hint of brake pedal feedback tells you the car is holding itself in place and it's safe to release the brake pedal. Voila! Your foot is off the brake pedal, the car is at a full stop, and the brake lights are on. A light touch of the gas pedal releases the brakes and you’re rolling along at idle speed again. It's all very natural feeling. It’s Germanic genius. I’ll go as far to say that its BMW being the classic BMW of yore, the BMW we all desperately miss, right under everyone’s nose.

BMW debuted “Comfort Stop” in 2002 on the “Bangle Butt” 745i. A car so controversial from grille to tuchus, that any redeeming quality was edited out of reviews to keep things in-line with controversial magazine headlines. (Hot takes were hotter and harder to come before everyone had cable internet. When car content cycles were monthly, not daily.) Since 2002, other manufacturers have added similar systems to their cars to same amount of fanfare as BMW’s debut. All while receiving far less criticism of their backsides.

If every car in a traffic jam had auto hold brakes, every driver would shave a split second off of their reaction time to the car in front of them. The time it takes to release your foot from the brake pedal and apply throttle would be eliminated! If every car in traffic had this marginal savings, the traffic wide savings could be huge. An extra car or two could make it through every traffic light just because everyone in traffic became more efficient. Without any extra work! Without paying any more attention!

In a world where Porsche can retrofit modern infotainment into your 1966 Porsche 911, why can’t automatic hold brakes be retrofitted into all semi-modern cars? Add a button to the dash, run a few wires, swap in a new brake light switch, upload some additional code, and you’re off! Well, stopped actually…You get my drift. This could all be done for much less money than designing an Apple Car Play or Android Auto kit for any specific car. Someone with automotive hardware/software/production experience really needs to make this happen. For all of our collective sanity. You'll probably get rich.

Roads have been widened and lanes have been added, causing more drivers to flock to the seemingly “open” roads. Adding insult to injury, drivers are seemingly getting lazier with each passing year. Let's capitalize on laziness while increasing efficiency!

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