Mercs new safety system

Seth Brundle

Mercs new safety system!
http://www.askaprice.com/torque-article.asp?article=Mercedes_makes_mess_of_safety_demonstration&item=669

stephenoleary

Ah the joy of live television... lets hope nobody is driving anywhere near steel.... not that anything in the world is made out of that.,....

unkel

Ah but it will work everywhere else :rolleyes:

fletch

unkel wrote:

Ah but it will work everywhere else :rolleyes:

Yeh that's reassured me.....

Turner

Is there a link to the video or can i just not find it.

Seth Brundle

don't know about a video but heres a link to the tv stations article with more pics.
http://www.stern.de/tv/sterntv/549644.html?nv=cp_L2_

MercMad

Yeah its not really the kind of thing that should have glitches !!

Like what else have they not thought of or considered, " We didn't expect two S-Classes to be travelling at over 150mph with their Distronic systems switched on, their A/C set to 19.5 degrees AND have The Police 'Greatest Hits' CD playing................simultaneously ! "

unkel

MercMad wrote:

Yeah its not really the kind of thing that should have glitches !!

Like what else have they not thought of or considered, " We didn't expect two S-Classes to be travelling at over 150mph with their Distronic systems switched on, their A/C set to 19.5 degrees AND have The Police 'Greatest Hits' CD playing................simultaneously ! "

LOL

But fair play to DB for trying. It won't be the first time a break-through safety feature will be standard on a high end Merc before any other car

Guy:Incognito

MercMad wrote:

Yeah its not really the kind of thing that should have glitches !!! "

In fairness, if you sit back when someone brakes in front of you and go"aah sure the car will take care of it" you deserve to be in a crash. I'm sure it's not designed to do all your braking.

fletch

Stekelly wrote:

In fairness, if you sit back when someone brakes in front of you and go"aah sure the car will take care of it" you deserve to be in a crash. I'm sure it's not designed to do all your braking.

I think thats where you are wrong....it will bring your car to a complete halt and then when the car in front moves off again, accelerate your car & maintain a set distance behind the car in front....one thing it doesn't however notice is a red light at traffic lights!

Guy:Incognito

fletch wrote:

I think thats where you are wrong....it will bring your car to a complete halt and then when the car in front moves off again, accelerate your car & maintain a set distance behind the car in front....one thing it doesn't however notice is a red light at traffic lights!

€150,000 car or not, I think i'll stick to my own braking. I'm sure at one stage or another every model of car has had an electrical fault, this would be a fairly serious one to leave to a computer.

mike65

This is why car that drive themselves will never catch on, people rightly fear a glitch that'll kill them. Some things should be left to the driver not a box of bits.

Mike.

Guy:Incognito

How does the system know the difference between you accelerating up to someone ane them braking? I'm sure its more sophisticated, but could this not be a bit dangerous with an already dangerous person behind the wheel, namely the ones that like to chnge lanes into very small space on motorways. This sytem could make the car brake and the guy behind could hit him.

ciarsd

Would now be a good time for a picture?



(joke of course )

unkel

LOL @ciarsd

That a real ad? I know its ok in the US to directly slag competitors in ads

MercMad

How does the system know the difference between you accelerating up to someone ane them braking? I'm sure its more sophisticated, but could this not be a bit dangerous with an already dangerous person behind the wheel, namely the ones that like to chnge lanes into very small space on motorways. This sytem could make the car brake and the guy behind could hit him

.........thats the easy part. The system knows throttle and brake position, gear selection, current speed and steering angle. The system used Mercedes Brake Assist System (standard on all Mercs) which means it uses sensors to detect if this is an emergency manouver in witch case it switches on and can bring the vehicle to a stop quicker than a driver can if left to his/her own devices !

Anyway I agree that braking should be left to a driver, however with this syetem braking IS left to the driver also. It is meant to be an additional systme which reacts to speed variations of other vehicle faster than the human eye ( unless you are in a steel box ! ).

MB recently celebrated 25 years of the Airbag, which was available in the W-116 S-Class. They had tested that extensively in the late 60's but couldn't get the 'then' current electronics to fire fast enough accurately.

Even crumple zones and side impact protection was standard in 1960. My own SL has both and was also the first Convertible designed to withstand roll-over situations ( with the Hardtop on obviously).

The other thing, interestingly enough, is that all of the safety innovations/designs that they developed were all patented, but issued freely to any other manufacturer in the interest of human safety !

I still think they should've covered the "steel room" issue though. I mean whilst the public wont encounter that situation, they must have known about it and shouldv;e copped this prior to making a fool of themselves !

ciarsd

unkel wrote:

LOL @ciarsd

That a real ad? I know its ok in the US to directly slag competitors in ads

yeah I believe it is an advert from the states. My uncle, (no pun intended!) who lives in the States, emailed it to my brother (BMW owner) last year sometime so I post it up every once in a while

unkel

Yep it's real. Here's the one in German

junkyard

Its about all Mercedes will be capable of doing at the rate the're going, as long as they can keep their commercial vehicle side of things going as they have definitly lost the plot with their cars. Towed in a 03 C180 last night with a dodgy ignition problem, the owner tells me its the third time its happened and was towed to the main dealer each time to be told that they fixed it. Needless to say he's trading it on monday for a BMW.