BMW's guardian angel

Figuring out a way to safely stop a car when the driver has suffered a heart attack, or some other serious medical problem, could not have been easy.

Sensing that the driver is not functioning normally is not beyond the bounds of new-generation monitoring systems, but getting a car to manoeuvre safely and autonomously off a busy freeway is another thing altogether.

Undeterred, BMW has announced it is developing a system that could become part of regular in-car safety paraphernalia in the future.

Dubbed by the company as Emergency Stop Assistant, the system aims to bring a car safely to a stop at the side of the road if the driver suffers a problem and is unable to maintain control.

According to BMW, the system "switches on the hazard warning lights and manoeuvres carefully -- taking into account the traffic around it -- to the outer edge of the road, before drawing to a standstill.

"At the same time, an emergency call is sent out containing the data required to initiate the necessary medical and traffic-related assistance measures."

At this stage, the prototype system is being developed by the German company's Research and Technology division to function on freeways, or similar roads. It uses sensors to monitor vital driver data, as well as the regular assistance systems in the vehicle.

Emergency Stop Assistant is part of a research project called SmartSenior launched by Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research and has implications not just for anyone suffering a medical problem while driving, but other road users as well.

SmartSenior Research and Technology project manager Ralf Decke says "Our primary aim is to avoid accidents caused by a health-related loss of control -- or at least to reduce the severity of such accidents."

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