AF330i

I have been trying to see what happens when this feature kicks in. From reading the manual it seems you need to be driving for around 20 minutes so today I gave it another try. The people behind me must have thought I had too much to drink for 12 noon

Anyway no matter if I let the car drift into almost the next lane or I tried to jerk the wheel to get me back going to straight in the lane it doesn't activate it.

Has anyone felt this feature work ... I have no plans to ever drive tired so I will probably never see how this feature works but would like to know what it actually does

BPhillyBenz

...same here. I am at 12,000 miles and have never felt it.

listerone

This is one of the safety features that drew me to my new Bluetec.I have (mild) diabetes that I don't monitor correctly and,as a result,I sometimes get rather sleepy after lunch and supper due to my sugars being off.I *do* have a detailed (and effective) plan to deal with it if it happens while I'm driving but in the 1 month plus I've had the feature it's never gone off.However,the lane change warning has gone off a couple of times...which is good.

mrazaq

The coffee cup feature has a lot of variables - it takes into account the time of day, how long you've been driving, how fast you've been driving (it only works in the speeds of 80-180kph apparently), how smooth the road is (it's unlikely that you'll feel sleepy on a bumpy road), lateral acceleration and so on. My father has had his W212 since this Thursday and says that he gets the coffee cup very often. Luckily it can be turned off.

All it does is display this: . It will do this every 15 minutes until you stop and have a break.

Also his car is the E350 CDI 4MATIC (diesel, but not bluetec) in silver/brown with the new twin turbo 265hp engine and boy is it quick! Or at least when compared to our 2004 E270 CDI which now has 480k kilometres on it.

ImInPA

I believe it also does not activate until you have been driving without interruption for at least 20 minutes, like on the highway.

tneal

I had it activate on our first long trip of 250 miles. I think it activated after driving for a couple of hours straight but I really can't be sure. What I did notice, after that happened, the cruise control didn't work until the next day.
Disabling the cruise control is likely a safety feature for somebody who might become drowsy after a long period at the wheel.

Eddie Knopp

In addition to the visual alert - is there an audible component ?

K-A

That's weird, with mine, when I hit the "OK button, it just goes away, and nothing else is affected, not the Cruise Control or anything.

There is an audible slight "beep" (very slight).

I've had it go off tons of times, when driving long distance. Never once has it gone off for reasons of me being sleepy. This is a good thing, as I've never gotten drowsy enough to swerve around it seems (although I have driven drowsy, but knock on wood, not enough to get this Attention Assist to kick in).

It always goes off if I've been driving for hours, if I'm reaching for something in the back, and accidentally swerve a bit, and it always will go off when the wind is pushing the car around. I'm not complaining, as I like having it around, and I guess it would be accurate to assume that someone in that exact scenario I'm in, might be swerving for drowsiness reasons (fortunately hasn't been the case with me).

scfishnman

Mine has never gone off despite my efforts to cause it to do so.

BenzE350

I not sure what I find funnier - the fact that Mercedes has this silly feature (that doesn't work well), or the fact that they have so many televison commercials to advertise it.

I wonder if they tried to get Dunkin Donuts on Starbucks to sponser it...

ImInPA

I think it is a very good feature. It is certainly not an example of cost cutting. To damn it because it does not go off often seems a bit harsh. I have 11 air-bags in my car and they have not gone off once either. A properly designed safety system should only intrude when necessary. That scfishnman has been unsuccessful in forcing it to come on shows how well engineered it actually is. It knows when someone is just being silly versus someone who is potentially falling asleep. I personally was worried about it coming on too often. I am very pleased with its operation.

BenzE350

You really believe that?

ImInPA

Based on what scfishnman says...yes I do. I do not have many "beliefs" structured around what a car can and can't do. I do know that it monitors over 70 different aspects of what is going on. Like you, I roll my eyes at many of these discussions, but, respect that these are concerns for some.

K-A

Try being silly to try and get it to go off, and I guarantee it'll rarely ever, if ever go off.

It detects subtleties in drowsiness, which unfortunately isn't fool proof from detecting genuine over-correction when the wind is blowing hard, or if you're not paying attention to the road.

El Cid

Mine went off once. On road for about 30 minutes, driving down interstate. Because of construction and barriers beside lane I was in, my speed varied a lot due to traffic and I tended to steer away from the barriers frequently.

BenzE350

I try not to question anyone's beliefs on a forum. After all, there are plenty of people who believe man has never landed on the moon, and believe that there is a man in the sky who knows if you have been good or bad.

ImInPA

Huh? Landed on the moon? You gotta be kidding me. Next you will try to convince me that the earth is not flat. Well I am befuddled now. As Frank Zappa once said, " I will now go and ponder the significance of short person behavior in pedal depressed panchromatic resonance and other highly ambient domains....arf she said"

hanjaya1

Mine always happen at night time, during long driving in the highway. But it really when I was not in the sleepy condition, mainly when I am trying to reach something or swerve a bit. At one point I could reproduce it by trying to swerve the car couple minutes after the first signal. To me, it is not that accurate. I like the lane changing feature better to fight against drowsiness. It works 100% all the time.

voy2k

Hey, let's keep religion out of this.

Oh wait, are you talking about Santa Claus?

K-A

MagicJack

The attention assist tends to starts to alert me after 3-4 hours of continuous driving. More so on open freeways where I've had it on Distronic Plus cruise for sometime.

I like it despite briefly getting in the way of music or audiobooks I am listening to.

El Cid

Not sleepy, but I was travelling down interstate and looking at something off to side of road both times. Each time, I had been very slightly weaving and the Attention Assist came on. It works!

ngerstman

I got coffeed coming home from Delaware a few weeks ago. A small amount of drifting. Didn't think that I deserved it!! I said ok and moved on. I guess if I was truly drifting off, it could have been a life saver. Pretty cool. Regards. Ned.

ejmb2010

I bet there is way to test it. Dealers would have to test it after making repairs.

thefisch

I bet they check something in the system to see if it is working. This would be hard to road test. IIRC, you have to drive at least 20 minutes above certain speeds and exhibit certain drowsy driving habits before it would give you a warning. I have tried to trigger it but have not been tired or drunk enough apparently. The car has a higher tolerance than me. Just kidding - drive safe everyone.