Question: I recently purchased a BMW X3 and am having trouble getting used to the lane assist feature. Is there any way I can turn it off for a while?
Answer:
You can turn off the lane assist features and reduce the intensity of the intervention to your liking.
Follow these steps to turn off the lane assist in your BMW:
- Step 1: Select Car, Settings, then Driver Assistance on the infotainment system.
- Step 2: From this point, select Safety and Warnings (if available).
- Step 3: Scroll down to Lane Assist or Lane Change Warning (varies by model year).
- Step 4: You should now be able to choose between Early, Medium, Late/Reduced, or Off.
- Step 5: Select Off to disable your lane assist.
Notice that in Step 4, you can choose between different levels of intervention. “Early” is the most intense option while “late” or “reduced” is the lowest level of intervention. Lane departure warnings only kick in around 45 MPH and above.
Your BMW also has a safety feature under lane departure and lane change/assist to redirect you back into your lane if you veer out of it. This only works if you have checked “steering intervention.” If you would prefer your BMW not to help you steer, uncheck it.
In some BMWs, you will see a button next to the four-way flasher button. It might look like a car icon with a green, orange or red circle around it.
That button gives you quick access to the Intelligent Safety menu, which allows you to configure your preferred level of driver’s assistance. For example, you might want all the other driver’s assistance except for the lane departure warnings.
You can go to “Configure INDIVIDUAL” and uncheck the assists you don’t want. These are saved in the “INDIVIDUAL” mode. You can also press the button to toggle between “ALL ON” and the other modes or hold the button to turn all assists off. A green circle around the car icon button means they are all on, no circle around the car icon button indicates they are all off.
Turning it back on
If you decide you want to turn your BMW lane assist back on, follow these steps:
- Step 1: Select Car, Settings, then Driver Assistance.
- Step 2: Select Driver Assistance, followed by Safety and Warnings.
- Step 3: Select either Lane Assist or Lane Departure Warning again.
- Step 4: Select On.
Lane departure warning is active when you see a green car icon within two parallel lines on either side, typically located on the upper left-hand side of your dashboard screen.
The bottom line
If your BMW’s lane assistance is not a feature you enjoy while driving, you could turn it off or turn it down a notch. On the contrary, if you do find the feature useful, you can set it to assist at a high level of intervention. Configuring your settings allows you to create your preferred driving experience.
Xuyun Zeng is a content strategist with a wide-ranging content background including tech, journalism, cars and health care. After graduating with highest honors in journalism, Xuyun led a newspaper to win eight awards, helped start an award-winning film industry podcast and has written over a hundred articles about cars repair, state laws and insurance. Prior to joining Jerry, Xuyun worked as a freelance SEO consultant with a mission to create the best content that will help readers and grow organic traffic.
Giselle Gomez is an editor with over a decade of experience editing content across personal finance, education, travel, and sports. In editing for Jerry, Giselle’s focus is on making sure content is consumer and SEO-friendly and helping readers understand all things car ownership. In prior roles, she worked as a content strategist, syndication editor, and writer. Her work is featured in AP, NerdWallet.com, BestColleges.com, and more. Giselle holds a master’s degree from Arizona State University.
