eskaypark

Just wondering if anyone else experienced sudden braking while driving the 2017 E43 AMG. While driving under clear conditions, the active brake assist activated twice without any obstacles ahead of me. The first time, I was driving on an empty local road, so it wasn't a huge deal, but the second time, I was on a semi-busy street with a car behind me. We almost collided because of the sudden braking.

I've checked the sensors on the car and cleaned them in case dirt or debris was the cause for the mishap, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm driving to the dealership to have them take a look at it, but I'm wondering if anyone else experienced similar issues, perhaps with other Mercedes models.

c4004matic

Not yet to me.
All these self braking systems will occasionally "false" due to a wide range of issues. A few common ones are driving over the heavy metal plates they use to cover excavations on roads, low overhead railway lines, very narrow tunnels, etc.
One big recommendation.
Go to the system options and turn the autobraking system to the least sensitive setting. This should minimize or eliminate falsing.


On the other hand, go to settings and turn the parking sensor settings and set those to early, if not the system will not beep until you virtually hit an object. The early parking system setting is the more common and much more useful slow to fast beep as soon as an object is detected.

Dashoto

I have my 2017 E300 in for service 3 days so far for this same reason. Last word from the dealer was it was a bit beyond them as they're contacting MB tech support. I was told that those emergency braking events are stored in the cars computer so they can understand what the car thought was a concern

There is a failure somewhere. I will update when I get more info.

jumpman726

I've read about this same problem from owners in the C-Class forum, but I don't remember if a solution was ever posted. Most likely just a software update, but it definitely sounds like an unnerving situation.

BelaMeca

There is no Solution.A problem also is the Cruise Control or the Pilot .It will sometimes brake on the freeway down to 60kmh for no reason.Very Dangerous.The Dealer said that MB contacted them and stated that there is no fix ,it is what it is....Well,i got a Lawyer so we shall see...

Sunrose305

My car brakes for ghosts almost on a daily basis. Best as I can tell here is what triggers it: I cross a solid line without turning my blinker on first.

There are five lanes near where I live: Two north, two south and a center lane for making turns. This center lane is bordered by a solid yellow line on both sides. On several occasions as I tried to slide left into this turning lane my car has braked suddenly and pushed be back into the travelling lane. Fortunately no one has been close behind me so far. I cannot say for sure but I believe it only happens if I don't have my turn signal on. It also seems as though it is more likely to happen if I drift left rather than make a more pronounced left into that center turning lane. I presume if I turn on my signal and/or make a more decisive turn the car is less apt to think I am inadvertently drifting off the road (i.e. across a solid line).

This also happened once in a construction zone where the lane dividing lanes were solid (as in you are not supposed to change lanes) while going from the right lane to the left lane. And I have had it happen a couple times when I in fact did get too close to the solid line on the edge of a road.

It doesn't actually slam on the brakes like an emergency stop but definitely applies them solidly as it shoves me right back into the lane I was departing.

knoppe01

That's the active lane assist - performing as designed, if it knows your signalling then it's deactivated.

c4004matic

On my C class the only issue I ever had was always in the same place, approaching a bridge, if the cruise was on and I turned on the left blinker the car would return to the previous higher set speed. It never had any other issues at all. Neither of the cars have had issues with self braking.
As I have pointed out none of these systems, in any brand, are fool proof or bug free. In many instances were are in fact running Beta version of software all the time. Anyone putting 100% trust in any of these self driving doodads is a fool. A system that is 99.99 percent reliable will have thousands of problems reported once there are enough cars out there with it and enough miles driven. Most systems are in fact better than human overall reliability but that certainly doesn't mean they don't fail.

Proeliator2001

+1

System working perfectly there. You'll see an icon come up on the dash of a top down view of the car with red lines on the braked side to show lane assist has kicked.

c4004matic

+2

Dashoto

I just returned from the dealer. They found no errors. Checked for codes, none. The emergency braking events were not recorded in the cars computer. They drove the car with a computer hooked in and monitored all the car systems and everything was working as designed.

The dealer said if it should happen again to bring it back right away. The only advice that was given was to move the Emergency Brake Assist to Medium (it was set at Early).

c4004matic

Ergo, exactly what I recommended! In fact forget medium and set it on the least sensitive mode. Its accident prevention capabilities will be the same but it will false a lot less and not bother you when driving "enthusiastically". Personally as far as autobraking is concerned I dont want any help unless a crash is almost unavoidable.

jgs1564

I had the same thing happen to me twice. Both times, I was traveling in light traffic. However, the first time it happened, I was driving on the 5 freeway in downtown Los Angeles at 9 PM and it was pouring rain. The automatic braking was so sudden and unexpected, it scared the crap out of me.

NOMRW8NG

I thought I read somewhere (can't remember where I saw it) that if you set it to "Late" then it may not be able to avoid the collision, only reduce severity of impact. I don't think the prevention capability is the same.

ua549

+1

There is a MB video demonstrating the difference between the settings.
I do not have a link.

c4004matic

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/25/a...cle-click&_r=0

c4004matic

Not that I'm aware of. As far as I know the only determinant of the self braking system is speed. The sensitivity only affects the warnings. In my experience using the least sensitive setting just just dulls the alerts to almost the same instant as when the hard braking takes place. so if it lights up you should jam your brakes immediately. The only activation Ive ever had was on my C, I was in a traffic Jam that varied speed from completely stopped to normal speed constantly. I was testing the limits of the drive pilot so I waited till the last moment in one of those instances where the traffic stopped all a of sudden, the car accelerated briskly and as expected had to slam the brakes when the traffic came to a sudden stop.
Note the following limitations, the auto stop only really works up to 35mph or so and at that speed it may not avoid a collision. At highway speeds only up to 50% up total brake force is available, you must supply the rest if traffic suddenly stops. Again, this is far from a self driving system unless traffic is moving along at 35 mph or less.

ua549

Recently there was a demonstration video showing an E300 approaching a large plastic object in the road. With the Active Brake Assist early setting the collision was avoided. With the late setting the collision occurred, but was less severe than without ABA. IIRC it was on a UK auto site.

I looked for a link, but it isn't in my browser history.

cyc

This one?
It shows the difference between the low/high sensitivity of the active brake assist.

ua549

That's it. Thanks for the link.

c4004matic

Where is the car on the video? All I saw was a hot chick.

evanblack00

So, is there anyone who using least sensitive setting and still getting falses?

Sunrose305

There are two DIFFERENT systems that seem to be causing false braking. My "braking for ghosts" comment is about the lane keeping system which brakes hard and shoves you back into the lane -- sometimes when it shouldn't. The other system is obstacle avoidance -- braking for an object in front of you if you don't. Clearly we are getting reports of both systems causing errors.

Dashoto

I have set my Emergency Brake Assist to Medium, was set to Early. However, since the false emergency braking events are not repeatable it may be difficult to know if there's any effect taken.

I am guessing it won't and the false braking will continue. Reason I say this is even with Emergency Brake Assist set to Early, I have received warning tones that prompted me to apply the Brake manually without the cars assistance. The false events I've experienced are beep, flash, full Brake all at once for a fraction of a second. At which point the car resumes normal driving. To me these false events don't seem to be assisting my inability to react, rather it's an immediate jarring panic like maneuver of the cars safety system, only to be cleared almost as soon as its initiated.

Scott Reynolds

Hello - I have a 2017 E43W4 and have the exact same problem. I have isolated this to the Active Lane Keep Assist. When I turn the Steering Wheel icon off (on the far left of the dash) it turns the feature off. I have had my car into Mercedes Benz of Beverly Hills Service 3 times, reported this to MB customer care (with no resolution), and they have not allowed me to work with the factory. Here are the symptoms:
1. When accelerating onto an onramp with 5-10 feet of curb on either side the car will suddenly lurch to the left or right. A red line will appear in the driver display indicating avoidance of the right or left side of the car. There is nothing there, no lines, no curbs. This happens at times when there is a low curb on a freeway onramp/exchange and is quite scary when it activates.
2. When driving down a 4 lane road at 35-45MPH if the lines change from thin dashes to thick dashed or thick solid (say on the right) the car will sometimes lurch to the left with the active steering assist kicking in. I am driving straight, the lines are straight.
3. Each time I bring it in they say they can not find a log of any steering assist incidents and the car is working fine, if it is then where are the logs, how can they diagnose something if they say it's not reported.

I would be willing to join a class-action lawsuit against MB USA. The P3 package is defective and not ready for market.

1. When driving with Steering Pilot the car will suddenly veer out of a perfectly marked lane and go so close to the car next to me that I have to do a rapid avoidance maneuver. Don't the sensors on the car detect the car next to me anyway, why steer into something instead of staying on the straight path.
2. When using the parking pilot I am astonished at the number of maneuvers the car will make, it will turn 5-6 times to do a front in parking job. then not even be in the center of the space or be at an angle. The last time I used this feature it nearly ran into the concrete pillar framing the space with a sharp corner edge. I was holding my breath as it drove forward and got so close I pushed not he brakes rapidly just as the car start screaming Alert Alert on the display with red flashing because it was going to hit something. So incredibly stupid.
3. Then there is the entertainment system, first if you use car-play or android auto you can not use the map display in the driver console, you can not use the shortcuts to your frequent car functions like seat massage, car play will often stop playing and you have to restart your music or Spotify app, it will say it's playing music but you have to push play from play and play from pause and then usually just restart the app.