The 7 Series’ pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Quattroporte doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the 7 Series and Quattroporte have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The 7 Series has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Quattroporte’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the 7 Series are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The Quattroporte doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The BMW 7 Series has standard driver and front passenger side knee airbags mounted low on the dashboard. These airbags helps prevent the driver and front passenger from sliding under their seatbelts or the main frontal airbags; this keeps them better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. Knee airbags also help keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Quattroporte doesn’t offer a front passenger side knee airbag.
The 7 Series has a standard PostCrash iBrake, which automatically applies the brakes in the event of a crash to help prevent secondary collisions and prevent further injuries. The Quattroporte doesn’t offer a post collision braking system: in the event of a collision that triggers the airbags, more collisions are possible without the protection of airbags that may have already deployed.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The 7 Series has a standard Active Park Distance Control that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The Quattroporte doesn’t offer backup collision prevention brakes.
When descending a steep, off-road slope, the 7 Series xDrive’s standard Hill Descent Control allows you to creep down safely. The Quattroporte doesn’t offer Hill Descent Control.
Both the 7 Series and Quattroporte have rear cross-traffic warning, but the 7 Series has Cross Traffic Warning with braking function (automatically applies the brakes) to better prevent a collision when backing near traffic. The Quattroporte’s Rear Cross Path doesn’t automatically brake.
The 7 Series’ driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Quattroporte doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the 7 Series and the Quattroporte have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front seatbelt pretensioners, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning, available all wheel drive and around view monitors.
The BMW 7 Series weighs 487 to 1402 pounds more than the Maserati Quattroporte. The NHTSA advises that heavier cars are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.