Walking the FIZ Mile | Alaina Smith

On Thursday, E3 walked down the mountain in the rain and took a train into Munich to tour BMW FIZ. BMW FIZ is the research and development groups for all BMW group cars and motorcycles. Located in Munich, the BMW FIZ campus is where researchers, engineers, and designers collaborate to create the cars we see on the road today. During our tour, we

learned about the value BMW places on its research, development, and safety testing for their cars.

At the beginning of the tour, our tour guide gave a short presentation explaining how BMW FIZ acts as the technical brain of BMW. Understanding the importance of research and development, the BMW group allocates over 6 million euros to projects in the FIZ to create the best and highest quality cars and motorcycles. In the 70s, BMW’s research and development team was spread out over 50 buildings in Munich. Wanting to revolutionize the research and development department, the BMW group asked MIT for ideas. MIT suggested creating a campus with all parts of research and development within walking distance of each other. This resulted in the BMW FIZ campus that E3 we able to tour.

After the presentation, we walked to an observation deck overlooking a safety test called “the catapult”, where they test seat belts and air bags without destroying the car. We were able to see a car being prepared on a wagon that accelerates on a track and abruptly stops. Behind the observation deck was a picture of a large family of crash test dummies. BMW only owns 80 crash test dummies. They are incredibly expensive and treated like family, BMW even provides them names. Each dummy is a different size to test the safety of every type person in a crash. After leaving the catapult test site, we walked to the opposite side of the campus to were to a garage full of cars wrapped with a funky black and white pattern. Whenever BMW develops a new car, auto-paparazzies attempt to take pictures of the car to sell images to magazines or other car companies, so they can copy the BMW model before BMW releases the car. To prevent this BMW created a black and white psychedelic looking pattern that they put on fake car parts that go on top of the unreleased car. The pattern prevents the details of the car from showing up in photographs. Once the car is camouflaged, a test driver takes the car out on the Autobahn. The last stop on our tour was in a room connected to the garage. A huge metal door swung open revealing a room with what looked like small pyramids poking out the wall and ceiling. The 40 million Euro room was an EMC testing room. BMW had to build this room so they could prove to a court with scientific evidence that their cars do not interfere with pacemakers and other medical devices. The tour really showed how much BMW cares about the safety their cars and the people inside of them.

Although E3 was tired from waking up early to get to BMW FIZ on time, everyone enjoyed touring the campus and learning about BMW research and development. The BMW FIZ tour was a fantastic last tour for E3.