Has BMW removed the TJA for the latest models? (2020-2022)

[costerex]

Hello,

I just bought an i3S from 12/2021, and I noticed that the steering wheel button dedicated to TJA has another icon related to the Adaptive Cruise Control distance; does this mean there is no TJA available?

Thank you,

 

[mojo]

I don't have any definitive info, but I searched all of the 2021 i3's for sale on Autotrader (in the UK) last week and could not find any with TJA.

I also checked the UK 2021 options list, and they had removed TJA from the list of features that were included with the Driving Assistant Plus options package. My car is Sept 2021 production, with Driving Assistant Plus, and it does not have TJA.

Note that the situation in other countries may be different: in North America it seems likely that TJA would be considered more of an essential feature than in some other countries, so if there were limitations to the availability of hardware, it seems likely that BMW would reserve stocks for cars destined there.

 

[Mondomensch]

At least for more recent i3 cars in the US, TJA was never allowed even with the adaptive cruise control, so the steering wheels here didn't have the "hand presence" sensing.

Apparently, one can buy an aftermarket component to install in the steering wheel and fake a hand presence signal, then code the car to enable TJA.

 

[mojo]

But... I would hate to think of the insurance consequences if you had an accident with one of those "hand on wheel" emulators installed and operating!

 

[Mondomensch]

But... I would hate to think of the insurance consequences if you had an accident with one of those "hand on wheel" emulators installed and operating!

Certainly, if in fact your hands were NOT on the wheel. I think I would certainly want to better understand the details of how the system is implemented before trying such a mod.

Having gained experience in using the higher-speed adaptive cruise control, I’ve been impressed with the smoothness and “reasonableness” of BMW’s implementation of that, so I might be amenable to the TJA mod for stop and go situations.

 

[mojo]

I agree with almost all aspects of the i3's Adaptive Cruise - the way it smoothly speeds up as you move out one lane to overtake a car that's going below your target speed is very good, and it can handle people chopping in after overtaking you without slamming on the anchors - unless they are being completely unreasonable.

The main problems with ACC are the well-documented failings of the camera system - plus the system also does not cope well with traffic in front of you leaving a motorway onto a slip road - it sometimes cannot work out that you aren't following them off the main carriageway, so it often brakes unnecessarily and a little too heavily in that situation. But overall (other than the ease with which the camera is misted or blinded by sunlight) it's a very good system. If they had used radar instead of a camera I think it would have been excellent.