It's a shame that corporations need these sort of disclamers to defend themselves against unfounded claims. I find the screen as annoying as the next person, but I don't blame BMW legal, or the legal profession as a whole.
IMHO, the blame lies with these groups:
- Drivers who don't accept responsibility for their own negligence and try to blame accidents on bogus "design flaws" or anyone else but themselves
- Plaintiffs' personal injury litigation attorneys, who represent those drivers and construct arguments that pin legal responsibility on the manufacturer for not preventing drivers from acting irresponsibly
- Jurors, who buy into the idea that insurance companies and corporations are just deep pockets and should pay whenever some idiot hurts himself
- Judges for not throwing these legal claims out of the courtroom
- Federal and state legislators, who could cure this problem by protecting the manufacturers from bogus claims, but who are in the back pockets of the Trial Lawyers Association lobby
- The U.S. public for continuing to reelect the judges and legislators that allow these abuses to continue
Even if
you signed a release, the person to whom you lend or sell your car could still sue BMW if
they have an accident while being distracted by the Nav screen. Requiring the driver to accept the message for each trip is the best way for BMW to ensure
each driver sees the warnings and accepts the disclaimer.
The Nav screen is equally distracting in the phone, radio, OBC, DSP, Nav, etc. modes. So if BMW were to only require the driver to accept at the Nav mode interface, BMW will face a lawsuit from some bonehead who runs off the road while dialing the numbers on the phone screen.
Just my .02