If necessary, you can get the passenger occupancy sensor ‘coded out’ from your airbag ecu so there are no more faults.

Affected vechicles:
3 Series – E36, E46, M3
5 Series – E39, E60, M5
6 Series – E63, E64
7 Series – E38, E65, E66, E67, E68
X Series – E53, X5, E83
Z Series – E36, E85, Z4

With new laws regarding NCT, your car will no longer pass an NCT if it has the air bag light on continuously.

This NSC EXPERT CODING has been proven to show on BMW forums that Passenger Seat as OCCUPIED. You can see in picture below that when a car is connected to the BMW diagnostic software INPA that it shows the state of the passenger seat as OCCUPIED. This means the car should behave as it would with a normal functioning occupancy mat sensor.

Note: SBE (SitzBelegungsErkennung) is German for Seat Occupancy Sensor and Pass. is Passenger.