What 37 owners told NHTSA about the 2019 BMW 5 Series Hybrid Sedan Phev

Dear NTSB Team, I am writing to formally report a serious safety incident involving my 2019 BMW 530E, which occurred last night on [XXX] in Danville, CA. My vehicle was parked in my friend’s private driveway, with the parking brake engaged and the gear selector set to Park. I was chatting with my friend who was in the passenger seat . My feet were on the floorboard, my seat belt was on and the engine was idling to provide heat as it was a cold night. Suddenly, about 10 minutes into our conversation, my car accelerated forward with speed, hit my friend’s garage door and then reversed with the same speed and stopped in the middle of the street. This happened within the span of a few seconds at most. I think that I applied the brakes while the car was reversing with speed and I remember the car not slowing down but then it coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of the street. There were deep skid marks on the driveway, my friend’s garage door was damaged, my friend’s Tesla X was damaged with impact to the rear bumper, this parked Tesla had moved forward and crashed in the wall of the garage and a garage cabinet door dislodged and fell on the hood of this Tesla. My friends parked Toyota Prius also had bumper damage. The garage drywall sustained cracks as well. The force from these unexpected accelerations and impact has left me and my friend with aches and pains in the back, shoulder, knees, hands, head and neck; thankfully, we did not suffer more severe injuries. I am gravely concerned about the potential for this defect to cause a catastrophic accident. Had there been pedestrians, pets or another vehicle in the path of my rapidly reversing vehicle, it could have led to serious injuries or even fatalities. I called my car insurance company, local police and I will notify the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and BMW of North America. I am hoping for a comprehensive investigation into what appears to be a dangerous electronic or software malfunction. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11642943

I purchased a used BMW from Apolo Auto in New Jersey around July 2021 the car was in perfect condition and it did not appear to have any mechanical or electrical defects. However, the prior owner had many aftermarket things done to the car and that was a big selling point as it was upgraded with low miles. After purchasing the vehicle some strange things started happening but I didn't pay close attention, and then my son was kidnapped from my home May 2022. It was at the beginning of June 2022 that I noticed we were being tracked, and private conversations inside the vehicle were publicly being communicated. I found evidence of infrared and bluetooth technology as well as GPS tracking technology and specific infrared technology is in the ceiling of the vehicle. The devices are close together & many. The vehicle was vandalized several times, broken into and the seatbelts in the back were pushed inwards so that I couldn't place my child into a proper seatbelt. I reported this to the insurance company and BMW in PA failed to repair the vandalism and they also failed to remove the tracking devices which I recently found. The highway violence consists of many vehicle swerving into my lane many times one after another, and I've almost crashed my car several times. Many instances have happened where motorcycles have pulled up next to the car at a stop light to rev up their engines to the point where my son beings to cry and it happens often. The consistently and level of aggressive behaviors have put my life in danger as well as my child's since he's special needs and can't be safely secured into his seatbelt due to vandalism, there are strange vehicles attempting to run us off the road on a regular basis, my vehicle has had significant mechanical vandalism which has yet to be repaired and it is known that the car is vulnerable therefore it is exploited. I fear the vandalism, tracking and consistent assaults on the road will cause our car to crash, injuring others.

NHTSA ODI 11590050

Date of accident: 8/10/2022 Location of accident: 2436 Krueger Dr, Concord, CA 94520 Accident Summary: My wife own’s the above mentioned home and was in the process of getting a new tenant. She reached the Krueger home at around 12:15 pm. She drove onto the driveway as she normally does, put the car in park and turned on the hand/parking brake. It is to be noted that driveway is on an upgrade. The prospective tenant did not show up. There was another potential tenant that was going to come around 2 pm. She decided to wait in the car and made herself comfortable by turning her body towards right, feet tucked closer to the seat, back was facing towards the driver side door, and rested her head against the back of the seat and made several phone calls. Around 12:40 pm, our daughter called my wife. She was talking to her for about 40-45 mins. While she was still on the phone talking, she heard a tripped kind of sound and the car experienced sudden acceleration and lurched forward with high speed. It felt like a bullet came out of a pistol. While she was in complete shock of what happened, she turned herself immediately in reaction to brake but before she could react to stop the car, she found her car hitting the closed garage door, and went inside and hit the front wall. All the air bags deployed and windshield was completely shattered. She felt a sharp pain on her right foot near her ankle and felt tightness due to swelling. Our daughter called 911 and she was taken to the ER. She was in a complete state of shock and tried to reason. The only possibility that comes to mind is that the car experienced a malfunction that cause sudden unintended acceleration.

NHTSA ODI 11489755

Serious crash from sudden unintended acceleration occurred yesterday where throttle seemed to be stuck in all gears and brakes didn’t work

NHTSA ODI 11430762