I remember a few months back someone mentioned their mat was missing the velcro... make sure everyone has it velcro'd down. These are the BMW mats that the CA "throws in".

Hi Armand,

You're absolutely correct. I've followed that story closely. But floor mat or water bottle jamming does not concern me.

There are reports of Lexus' careening out of control, in an uncommanded manner, with no floor mat involvement.

The basic premiss is that our vehicles use drive-by-wire technology. That is, the throttle is controlled by servo actuated motors that could be prone to malfunction or miscalibration.

I'd simply like to make sure that I'm able to shut my vehicle off at any time, in the emergency situation, that my vehicle suffered such a malfunction.

On the surface, it appears that via a combination of methods, that is possible. It's not as easy as turning a key, as was the case 5-years ago. But, I do believe you can shut down a BMW X5 35d whilst moving at freeway speeds, according to my experiments.

I do the same thing. After two years with the E70 and a few months with the X6 I've never accidentally hit the button.

I had a friend who had a habit of sticking the barrel of a loaded 45 cal automatic pistol in his mouth. He liked to rest his tongue on the front sight and the feel of trigger on his right index finger.

I sure miss him!

Eh, C- at best. :)

ABMW, Found something you might find interesting. According to the manual, page 61, the vehicle can be slowed down in "exceptional circumstances" by continually pulling on the Parking brake button. It continues to say that when speed is reduced to 2 mph, parking brake will set. So it appears that if you shut off the engine while in motion (as you described), the car will not switch to park until it slows down to 2 mph.

Which is what the second post in this thread said.