Saved By Automatic Braking?
 

Recently the forward-looking sensors in my E300 sent me a warning of an impending collision with the suddenly-stopped car in front of me. I had been looking in my rear view mirror at that exact moment to change lanes. I probably would have managed to stop even without the warning but definitely appreciated it. And, If I understand correctly, had I not responded in time the car would have braked automatically.

QUESTION: Have you been saved from a near certain accident by an alert or automatic braking?

I have wife alert. it starts beeping before I even notice anything happening.

+1 (and screaming)

Mine has warned me several times, but I have reacted before it could brake automatically. Having seen the videos posted online, it would appear that the automatic braking occurs pretty late - well past the point where most people would react, so I hope never to experience it.

I've had the car 5 months now, I've had it beep several times, i've had it "assist" my braking twice (pre-safe activated, seatbelt tightened etc).

This morning I had a funny experience, was using the drive pilot on my commute to work, there was an intermittent traffic jam, so we went up to 100kph and then slowed right down to 20kph pretty quick, i had the distance set to max, and the car started slamming on the brakes even though there was a good bit of distance between me and the car in front. I saw in my rear view mirror, a guy in an old banger of a minivan with probably no disc brakes even was swerving all over the place trying not to bum rush my expensive merc, (nearly going into the divider in the process of trying to avoid me) I had to tap on my accelerator to cancel the drive pilot braking and disengage the drive pilot. I don't "brake check" anyone ever, but this was was one of those extremely-dangerous-but-hilarious situations. Hope the lad didn't have a heart attack.

I have had the emergency braking activate a few times as well. However, it has also happened for no reason about 3 times. It seems that some bumpy and pothole-filled roads can be read as stationary objects by the assist system. Imagine driving along an empty road only to have the seatbelt suddenly tighten and your brakes go to full ABS.... not very fun.

I had that happened once as well, it was a flat road slight hill no potholes, it was the 2nd day of my new car was pretty scary! others users have had it worse in terms of "ghost braking"

also braked the other day cause i was reversing out and a dog came in the path of the car (I knew about the dog from the rear view cam and it was too far away, plus I was reversing at a snail's pace), I was going to give out to my car for being so dumb, but good to know it works in reverse too I guess

Same here – happened once recently, no idea why, but the brakes were applied for only about a second. Odd.

Yes. I've had the car automatically brake three times.

Once was legitimate - coming around a curve and some knucklehead darted out from driveway at the last second without looking. The system totally saved me...
Second was ghost braking - at night, raining heavily, on a bumpy up-and-down road, no one in front of me. Not sure why the brakes fired off but can only guess it was confused by the rain and quickly changing road elevation.
Third was while backing up around the curved section of road at airport arrivals. I think the radar sensed the other cars coming around the bend as an impending collision and brought the car to a quick complete stop.

About a month ago we had someone come up from behind so fast that it beeped and raised the seats and activated the seatbelt tensioner. I almost had a heart attack because I was sleeping in the passenger seat as we drove home from Disney lol.

I wanted to add that when I come up to an E Class when on one of my motorcycles I get to relax a little bit as I trust that car more than others on the road not to side swipe me lol.

Very interesting. I did not know the car also watched from behind in that manner (aside from slow speed backing out of a parking space, etc).

Yep, the car uses all the sensors (front and rear) to detect incoming collisions and react accordingly. Even if you can't avoid it, the system will do whatever it can to mitigate the damage. It reacts when the collision is within 0.6 seconds of happening, so it is very last minute, but even that half a second of action can reduce the force of the impact by half, which is huge when it comes to preventing injuries, which is the goal.

The safety systems in the 213 are really amazing, when you see the car completely stop itself with no driver intervention because someone walks out in front of it, it's quite impressive.

Had my wife's Volvo S90 yesterday that has automatic braking.I was in the cruise control that brings you to a stop when traffic stops in front of you just like my MB.Traveling at 65mph,this was the first time I was traveling too fast & got too close to stopped car in front that I slammed on the brakes as I closed on its rear end.Maybe it would have stopped but I didn't trust it this time.

This is what our car did minus us braking. We were just cruising along and a car came up fast behind us on the interstate. It beeped, raised the seats, and tightened the belts...and about made me poo my pants lol.

That is Rear End Collision system and is part of the Driver Assist Package. If you don't have DRP, there's no sensors to protect you for impact. Is also applying maximum brake if you're at full stop so you don't rear end someone if you get hit.

Not so sure its working
 

Is this something you have only if you have the Premium 3 package?