NHTSA Complaint #11615676 — 2019 BMW X5

On November 9, 2023, I was driving out of town to visit a friend. I had been on the road for 1.5 hours and driven approximately 100 miles. When the vehicle approached a stop sign and came to a stop, the auto stop function turned the engine off. When it was my turn to proceed, I disengaged the brake, but the vehicle's auto start function failed to turn on the engine. I put the car in park and pushed the start button once. In doing so, the car attempted to restart itself multiple times, without success. I could hear the vehicle "cranking", but the car never started. Shortly thereafter, the cranking sound stopped, and white smoke filled the cabin through the air vents. It smelled like burning plastic. I grabbed my belongings and evacuated the area. Once outside of the vehicle, I could see white smoke bellowing out from underneath the vehicle. There were no warning messages or any other issues prior to the failure. The car was towed over 100 miles to the dealership where they confirmed an internal short circuit caused the starter to fail. The dealership replaced the starter. I do see there is a recall for the starter. However, I believe my issue is different. The vehicle failed to restart due to the recently identified programming issue, causing the starter to malfunction. The starter failure was not due to excessive attempts to start the vehicle, as I only pushed the start button one time.