NHTSA Complaint #11460842 — 2014 BMW X5

I like to report the incident with the sudden collapsing of the ECU car electronic on 01/23/2022 during night, which had raised my serious concerns regarding the car safety in general. During driving the car in the nighttime of Sunday 01/23/2022, my wife was on her way to return from Pompano, FL to her home in Plantation, FL, using the Turnpike, she experienced that ECU engine speed control had repeatedly sudden changes in engine revolutions, all indication lights at the dashboard went on and then all went off. At this moment of time, it was impossible for her, to control car speed via the accelerator pedal, since the engine speed suddenly changes from low idle to high idle, the operation of power steering and car brake system were affected as well. This unsafe situation of the car control functionality caused an unsafe situation for driving and having control over the car. It wasn’t possible for her to control engine/car speed, either the affected power steering hydraulic system and car brake system doesn’t supply the sufficient pressure to their system. In this particular moment the car was undrivable and uncontrolled, which were leading to a very dangerous situation for the driver, and it could end up in a live threating situation and accident for the driver. The service technician of BMW Holman Auto in Fort Lauderdale traced back the reason, that the ECU lost the throttle signal, due to a failure of the car battery. These is raising another question, why it doesn’t happen when starting the car, this is the moment when the highest current get drawn out from the battery, another question is, why these never happened before, when the car battery lost its capacity, because I’d to change the battery already twice since I’ve this car. Another question is regarding the ECU control logic functionality and their set up, why the engine speed needs to be accelerated, why the ECU can’t use the last actual throttle set point.