I am contemplating purchasing a new E class car as my daily driver. I am interested in its self driving/driving assisted capabilities. Is it as advertised? I am not interested in full self driving mode, just enough in stop and go traffic that I can relax a little and let the car drive itself in those situations. I currently have a Alfa Romeo with adaptive cruise control of which I use in stop and go traffic. Generally works well, however in certain situations such as a car cutting in front of you I get nervous since I feel the sensors don't recognize this and car continues to accelerate. The demo videos that Mercedes shows are pretty impressive, just wondering if you guys can attest to this in your daily driving experience. Thanks.

 

It's definitely not "self driving", but an assist and as long as you understand this, and use it in this way, it is fantastic.
I pretty much use it all the time both on freeway and in town, and especially in traffic jams it make a huge difference.

Of course if other people drive like maniacs the system can not always adapt to this, and indeed a driver
that cuts in front of you COULD mean you have to interfere yourself.

Also remember that you do have to touch the steering wheel every now and then in a traffic jam
to let the car know you're not dead... (I think only in very slow traffic this is not needed)

 

The technology is in its infancy, IMHO, years away from being ready for prime time, yet a very expensive option. I wouldn't waste money on it at this stage — I passed on the Premium 3 package on my 2018 E400C.

 

I use Distronic every day. It takes the work out of using cruise control by keeping a safe, user adjustable distance from the vehicle in front no matter how the speed changes. In addition I like the ability to see the speed of the ahead vehicle as determined by radar. It is displayed as a pointer on the speedometer.

 

I agree as well. I use it every morning - I drive to work early in the morning and it adds a level of security especially with unmarked cops all over the place. Again it's not a self driving vehicle but I find it useful especially on highway drives. In rush hour type traffic in NY I don't use it I'd be constantly cut-off by the other drivers.

 

I would not own a car without it.

 

I also agree with this, I used to feel that the "advanced tech" were fancy toys, however they clearly are advanced safety features and now (despite the price) include them in all the vehicle I buy. You just can't put a price on this sort of stuff.

 

+1

 

When I'm in slower dense traffic I reduce the Distronic spacing to minimum with a twist of knob at the end of the cruise control stalk. I find Distronic is most beneficial in slower dense traffic with continuous changes in traffic flow.

 

Thanks for all your kind replies. For all of you that use the Distronic cruise control, how comfortable are you if you are not paying attention and someone cuts in front of you and car will sense it in time and stop. In my current system there has been numerous times where a car cut in front of me and my car kept on acclerating. Maybe it would have stopped in time, however I got nervous and manually had to hit the brakes.

 

It depends how close the shave is. I have had auto cruise cars for more than 10 years (5 different vehicles), despite its limitations, the latest mb system is the best so far. It is far from being a self driving system, anyone that says differently is a fool. YOU SHOULD KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE ROAD AND YOUR HANDS ON THE STEERING WHEEL AT ALL TIMES.
The system works best on long boring highway drives and in slow stop and go traffic jams . In slow traffic jams, it works very well as long as you keep the speed setting low. If you set the speed at 60 mph in 25 mph traffic you will suffer unwanted surprises like the one you describe.

 

I have Premium 3 in my new 18’ E400 Coupe, have tried this feature a few times and am thinking it works pretty well. I drove all the way through Golden Gate Park, or I should say the car drove itself all the way through all on its own. I only needed to touch the steering wheel a few times along the way. Seems like it works best in medium stop and go traffic as others have mentioned. I’d say go for the option. If you’re going to do something, do it right and go for everything you want on this exceptional car.

 

I find it interesting that the naysayers don't own cars equipped with Distronic... I wonder if they've ever actually driven a car equipped with it, or at least drove 50+ miles with it.

I DO own a car equipped with Distronic, a 2015 E350. The car has ~48k miles on the clock, and about 40-43k of those have been driven with Distronic engaged. My impressions below will be based on my experience with my W212 (2015 E350), as I've not had a chance to test a W213 with Distronic. I've been told there are substantial improvements with the W213 version.

The only reason I bought my E350 was Distronic, otherwise I probably would have bought another Infiniti. I ordered my E350 with Distronic despite never getting the chance to try it. Distronic hasn't disappointed me at all. The rest of my E350 has been a different story... My E350's been in the dealer's service bay over 10 months of it's life... so I've searched for a suitable replacement.

I've driven just about everything out there with adaptive cruise control, and Merc's by-far the best one out there. Easily better than Tesla. Everything else just feels 10+ years behind, probably because it is -- Merc's had some form of Distronic for sale since 2000. While the other guys are selling cruise control systems with distance control bolted on, Distronic was built to be a true self-driving system, but substantially neutered by government regulations. That's a big difference. The W213 *is* capable of autonomous driving. To date, the W213 is the only production car certified for full autonomous driving in Arizona, USA. The fully autonomous W213 test cars use the exact same systems, hardware, and sensors as the production W213s. The only difference is the software loaded on them.

So, after driving everything plausible, I ordered a 2018 E300, with Distronic, even with all of the problems I've had with my '15.

Distronic (at least my 2015's version of it) is superior in heavy traffic. If anything, it works better in nasty, stop-and-go traffic jams than it does open highway. Keep in mind, Merc (Bosch) uses 2 stereo cameras (forward), ultrasonic sensors around the car, multiple radar sensors front/back/sides on multiple radio frequency bands, including doppler radar. NO ONE else does this. The car not only knows where other cars are, it also knows the distance AND their speeds. That last bit is important. If you get cut off by a ricer weaving in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed, don't expect the car to do much except show them on the fish finder (dashboard radar display). They're going faster than you, so there's no reason for your car to worry about increasing the following distance. Now, let's say you get some blue-hair doing 35mph in a 55mph road and they cut you off. The car's going to react swiftly, standing on the brakes if need be.

Also, when you're buying a car equipped with Distronic, you're getting more than just 'cruise control'. The W213 is a rack of computers on wheels. Distronic and it's related systems are always awake and ready to intervene. If the car thinks it's about to be involved in a crash, it's going to take over. I've had two times where I was almost rear-ended by another car and the Merc took over. The one time, the car was at a complete stop. It's much like an Airbus (vs Boeing). With an Airbus airliner, the pilot is just an input into the system. The same is true with a Distronic-equipped W213. The car's going to do whatever it can to avoid, or at least lessen the severity of an accident. Even if that means ignoring the driver.

As far as the experience goes, I liken it to riding a horse. You point the horse where you want to go, give it a little encouragement, and it'll go where you've pointed it unless there's a good reason for it not to. It'll more-or-less follow the road and do what it can do avoid hitting other cars. It won't avoid potholes or objects in the road. It won't stop for a red light or stop sign (this part infuriates me -- the car can do it, but the gov't won't allow it to). Then there's the ~300' range of the 'long range' radar. The car isn't aware of what happens beyond that. Even at 35 mph, 300' happens quickly.

Like ua549, I also like the display, especially with it showing the distance AND speed of the car in front of you. It's more than just a gimmick -- I use it for actual driving. You see the person in front of you slowing down, but how quickly are they slowing down? This tells you immediately. I also have used the 'fish finder' as my eyes in very bad visibility. Even when I'd hit near-whiteout conditions due to fog, the fish finder clearly showed me what the car in front of me was doing and the car tracked their path since it couldn't see the road markings. Pretty nifty. Interestingly, my car does better with rainy conditions than clear sunny days. I'm not sure why this is. The MB factory rep didn't seem to know either.

To date, my car has successfully avoided 4 accidents. 2 where I was almost rear-ended, 1 late night meeting with a deer, and 1 cross-traffic where an old fart didn't even slow down when blowing through a stop sign. If for no other reason, THIS alone should be reason enough to get your car fitted with Distronic. Even if you never engage it in DrivePilot mode, it's always watching the car and its surroundings.

 

As most mentioned here, it is just an assistance and works as designed.
It works much better while following another car. Till 30 kph it doesn't even asks for one to put his hands on the steering wheel.

 

What he said!!

 

MB tend to be the leaders in this type of innovation....the rest follow......I'd expect that they are better than Alfa........never had a problem with mine but, I've only done 6000 miles.

 

Definitely not as good as Tesla's... Atleast on norwegian roads where the roads are horrible. Atleast the Tesla tracks the GPS positions of XXXX-number of cars and makes the "perfect road". Merc just follows the stripes.
I'm afraid to use it, cause I can't trust it..

 

Road markings and/or the car ahead...not sold as fully autonomous and also does not diminish the responsibility of the driver using common sense - I've used it a lot in the limited time Ive had my car and find it really good.

 

Yep, you're right.. Distronic is nowhere near as "good" as Tesla's AutoPilot at driving into the wall.

Have you driven an E/W213 with Distronic? It most certainly uses GPS, ALTHOUGH Merc will be the first to tell you, GPS & maps are misleading.

 

Distronic does not use GPS. Its a combination of a line following visual camera and radar. The additional stereo cameras are for pedestrian detection etc. Regardless, it works just as good (or bad) as the Tesla's system. Teslas problem was (as with all of Elon Musk endeavors) overpromise and underdelivery. Every time I see some one on a stage with an earpiece mike trying to sell something I already know that half or more of what he is saying is BS.

 

it certainly DOES use map data as well

 

What is your source? I have not found any Distronic or Distronic Plus technical info that mentions map data or GPS. It uses radar.
Link

 

I stand corrected in the sense that this works only in combination with steering/drive pilot.
When I take a roundabout for instance (with distronic engaged) the car will not accelerate
until it has left the roundabout.

 

The system fitted to the revised S class uses map data to anticipate and slow down for road junctions.

 

I believe that gps data could be involved...my SL (headlights) certainly know when I'm in the country (as opposed to city) or approaching a roundabout etc....as the headlights are at different angles etc....