boater07

Have only had my car for 2 weeks and still learning many of it's features.
Curious how you folks use the distronic. I can see its benefits on highway stretches, but don't see the benefit in city with irregular traffic.The constant speed adjustment makes for a poor ride. Never get close enough to see if the brakes really work.
I'm probably not using it properly and would love to hear from others.

listerone

The only time I use cruise is when I have a reasonable expectation of being able to travel at a constant speed of 50mph or higher.IOW,I basically only use it on the Interstate.

boater07

I agree about cruise control but I am wondering how to best use distronic.
I've heard that people use it in stop and go traffic and skip manual braking.
Isn't it designed to prevent rear ending??

listerone

When I made reference to cruise control I was specifically referring to the Distronic cruise control.Yes,some (many?) with Distronic use it to minimize (or elimintate) the use of the accelerator and brake pedal.I've tried that a few times and didn't like it at all.It seemed to work but was jerky and caused short stops and somewhat hard acceleration.I see the "Distronic" features of the cruise control as nothing more than a safety feature while some (many?) see it as a valuable convenience.And it's also true that one of Distronic's features is the prevention of (or lessening the severity of) certain accidents.In fact,there's one member here who's had Distronic accident prevention kick in twice (in serious situations) and he said it worked amazingly well,which is very good news to me (and others no doubt).As for active lane assist and active blind spot assist they've worked very well for me and I like them a lot.

dan1495

Distronic Plus certainly works in stop and go traffic but it is really more trouble than it is worth. I can also tell you that it brings the car to a complete stop but it is pretty spooky to let it do it.

Live Oak

I would never . . .

And never use CC in traffic, urban Interstate, etc. Only mostly open highway. That's just me . . . "chickin."

vdubpower

ive done an entire freeway journey with dist. plus and lane tracking, gave me plenty of time to switch to the passenger seat and play with my ipad.......works great

ttoE550

I use it every day on non-highway roads. It is great. You just have to get used to it. The tough one is in semi fast heavy traffic with cars pulling in front of you. But it is awesome with bumper to bumper conjested traffic, especially if you are behind a large vehicle that you cannot see through to the traffic ahead. D+ will slow the instant the car in front does.

listerone

I've allowed it to work a couple of times and it *does* work.But,IMO,it's still a very imperfect technology that could someday become commonplace and appreciated by ordinary drivers.Having seen how my Distronic works and having seen the progress that technology has made in the last,say,40 years I wouldn't bet against the day coming when accelerators and brake pedals are made obsolete.

boater07

This is really my question. How do you set it?Have not been able to pick a speed
where I'm not constantly jerking around.
Traffic seems to jump more than the 1-5 speed range

ttoE550

I'm not 100% sure I understand what you mean. I use it several ways depending on circumstances. I live where there are lots of 2 lane roads and no passing and well-known speed cameras (Montgomery County MD). If I am behind someone doing, say, about 40 and I don't really care about my speed, then I will set the car to, say, 55. We speed up and slow together. I use the distance control depending on traffic. If heavy, I set it to follow as close as possible. If very light, it seems rude to be that close, so I set it to have more distance. Again, there is no jerkiness unless the car in front is being jerky, we just speed up and slow together.

If there are speed cameras, then I set my speed to the max I want. If the limit is 30, I set it to35 (no ticket for less than 11 over, I leave a margin). I can't get a ticket. Here's what usually happens when you are following a car. It will do about 35 until the camera. But the typical driver has no idea what the limit is. So they will brake to 20 as they pass the camera. You are ready. Your car will brake too.

I think you might be trying to adjust your top speed too much. In bumper to bumper traffic doing 0 to 10 for instance, my top speed might be set at 70 with the distance set to minimum. I never adjust it unless the top speed I am willing to go changes for some reason.

boater07

Thanks for the detailed reply. I'm starting to understand but not sure your last
example is what you meant. In bumper traffic-you set at 70??? How do you get
to that speed to even set CC.

My main objection is the car speeding and slowing more drastically than I would.
Just taking the foot of gas is usually adequate to slow down. With distronic-it feels like a lot of shifting. No doubt, I need more practice.

Thanks again for all the help on this site

listerone

That's my basic attitude regarding its use for stop and go driving.While braking and acceleration are done effectively they're not done nearly as smoothly as I,myself,would easily do.

I don't think that's true.I think your observations are just "the nature of the beast".

ttoE550

The point is not to get to that speed, but to tell the car the maximum speed I would be willing to go. The purpose of D+ is to go the correct speed for the traffic around you, up to the maximum you set. So if the car in front of me is doing 5 mph, so am I. If the traffic congestion clears and the car in front speeds up to 80 mph, I will speed up along with it until I get to 70 mph and then stay at that speed. Then I will adjust my maximum if I want to go faster or slower.

I don't find D+ to be jerky. In fact, I find the acceleration to be a bit slow, and I often stop on the brake harder than D+ does coming up to a stop sign. But everyone tells me that I tend to drive a bit fast. Seatbelts are useful everyday features on my car! (I am not unsafe; I raced for a few years.) I love D+ because it makes me relax and not worry about racing around.

EDIT: As I posted this, I just remembered - I took a test drive once and the guy told me to test the brakes. He wound up having his face smashed on the windshield - not joking. I had no idea he didn't have his seat belt on. He had no idea that I know what 100% brake means!

Arrie

I use it at all times when possible. Find it extremely nice in a crawling traffic jam. Just let the car follow the car in front of you and when it stops behind it just pull the stalk and it will start following the car in front after it moves again. No need to use brakes or gas by foot.

It also is a great safety feature in city traffic when someone jumps in front of you leaving no room. It slows the car down before your own reaction time allows you to do so.

But, Distronic can be a bit tricky too. In turns it easily disables itself when the car in front disappears from the radar's view. Another thing is it does not stop behind stationary objects, i.e. if you come with Distronic ON from a distance behind a car sitting at lights your car will not stop as the Distronic did not see that car moving first. The pre-safe brake will beeb and 40% brakes will be applied before the impact but there will be an impact if you don't apply brakes yourself.

It takes a little bit "getting used to" but Distronic is and stays in my selection of vehicles.

Live Oak

And, there is a caveat here:

On several occasions, on long drives on open highways, far out in the toolies, no cars nearby, no cops in sight (source of radar), nothing close to the road, minimal growth, say highway 191 south of Moab Utah, or 491 east of Monticello, UT (just two actual examples) . . .

. . . without warning, Distronic+ will suddenly shut completely off, with two beeps, and a message that Distronic+, Blind Spot, etc., etc., no longer working.

(What if I had been using Distronic+ to tailgate some guy and D+ shut down???!!! WHAM!! )

So I was back to driving like a real, old fashioned driver for about 5-10 minutes, and suddenly everything came back on.

At the next stop I got out to see if a big grasshopper was smacked on the radome, but nothing there.

One of the big mysteries of Mercedes . . . No TSBs listed for this symptom.

dfordham

I suspect that, because it gets no echo for an extended period of time, it assumes the system is not working. A form of self-test. On ordinary roads, there would be echos from passing cars, roadside buildings, even cars going the other way. While these signals wouldn't require any action, they would serve as an indication that the transmitter and receiver are working.

Regards,
Don

HBerman

There's most likely a software update for that. I was getting false alarms on my pre-Safe system (part of the Distronic Plus) which was corrected by an update. However, it sounds more like you have a basic system fault in the gateway since the Blind Spot Assist went off as well. All sounds very unusual.

Autobahn-Maniac

Best Option invented! Can't imagine ever owning a car without from this point on. BTW, I use it whenever the conditions allow.

Live Oak

That's a very interesting speculation that I would love to see confirmed by MBZ.

WEBSRFR

Are you sure about the 11MPH over thing? I too live in Montgomery County and it seems new tax collection stations (err. speed cameras) are popping up everyone. I think DC made something like 35 million off of them last year.

I think 5mph over is safe but have never been sure and don;t want to deal with the hassle of fighting a ticket if some leach programs it for 6 mph over and the margin of error gets me...

ttoE550

Yes, you can do up to 10 mph without a ticket; you get a ticket for 11+ mph. I have read it in many, many articles. I pass every camera in my area at +5mph. River road, Seven Locks (2 zones), Wooton Parkway, Wilson, etc. I pass the Oaklyn cameras minimum twice a day for 5 days a week during the school year. I have gotten exactly one camera ticket because I was so irritated with a beat up Corolla doing 25 mph up River Road from Piney Meetinghouse to the Village that I forgot about the camera and passed at 17 mph over. I go the same on other locations but less frequently, like Randolph, Democracy, Bells Mill. My wife is similarly apprehensive despite having seen me do it dozens of times.

Karl901

I love the distronic cruise control. It is great on highway. Just use it and let it control you car in traffic. It take a little while to get use to not having to use your brakes. Just trust it. But it can scare the hell out of you when someone cuts you off.

BenzV12

Your post reminded me of TG W221 S Class Test Review by Jeremy Clarkson .He was still putting his foot on the brake pedal just in case lol
Well, seriously though I would do the same if I had D+ untill I am getting used to it lol

Karl901

I used my D+ following one of my salesmen from Orlando to Tampa.
I stayed behind him the whole trip, stop and go up 80mph, I set it at 90mph.
Went through stop go rush hour traffic in Tampa and turn it off only after a idiot cut me off at the exit ramp. My advice play, test, use. But you still have to pay attention. It works!