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My wife and I regularly take extended road trips. My GLE wants to nag me about taking a break. I have disabled the 'attention' in the vehicle settings, but it keeps getting reset. Any way to permanently disable that nagging feature?
As far as I know it can't be permanently disabled, because it's a safety system. Most safety systems can only be temporarily turned off, but will reactivate next time the engine is started. You can change the sensitivity between standard and sensitive.
If you get nagged to take a break, though, then you and your wife exhibit signs of drowsiness or lapses in concentration. The attention assist works by observing your steering and other inputs. There are specific behaviors that directly correlate to drowsiness or lapses in concentration. For example if you start drifting in your lane, or make sudden steering corrections. Those are signs it picks up.
On the other hand it picks up on things that clearly indicate that you are fully concentrated and not at risk. In those cases it automatically disables itself. For example if you adopt a sporty driving style with high cornering speeds or high acceleration, if you change lanes and vary your speed frequently and if the Active Steering Assist is active in conjunction with DISTRONIC. These scenarios are spelled out in the owners manual.
Personally, on long trips to reduce fatigue and to not have the attention assist think I'm tired, I use DISTRONIC and the Active Steering Assist. I generally also drive in a sporty manner, so I've never had it ask me to take a break and I've done up to 12 hours road trips. This however is in my C63. I can see in the ATTENTION ASSIST display that it is suspended most of the time, because of the above scenarios. Mostly due to my sporty driving style or the use of DISTRONIC with Active Steering Assist when just cruising along on a long journey. BTW, it also shows the level of your attention. Maybe bring up the display and observe your behavior when the level starts going down. Whenever I've checked it in the past out of curiosity the bar has always been all to way on High.
Last edited by superswiss; 04-23-2024 at 06:51 PM.
So, superswiss, you're saying this is an MB imposed 'safety system', that I cannot disable. Absolutely refused to add that set of 'safety' features to my car, letting someone else decide if they are smarter than I am. Glad they didn't decide that people over 70 were a safety risk, or that people under 21 were a safety risk, and prevent them from driving. And this sounds suspiciously like the upcoming US requirement for cars to have a 'kill switch' that will turn your car off if it decides you are impaired. Sorry, but I don't need my car deciding if I am having an issue or not. Tell you what, let ME decide what looks like you are having 'safety' issues... How about that? Who decides when you are impaired? Who decides 'what' is impaired.... Looks like it is about to be the US government for cars sold in the USA..... Happy you have found someone else (Mercedes) to try to keep you safe while you are driving. Very annoyed that Mercedes is the nagging mother-in-law in the back seat that cannot be shut off. May make me revisit my choice of vehicles in the next round.
So, superswiss, you're saying this is an MB imposed 'safety system', that I cannot disable. Absolutely refused to add that set of 'safety' features to my car, letting someone else decide if they are smarter than I am. Glad they didn't decide that people over 70 were a safety risk, or that people under 21 were a safety risk, and prevent them from driving. And this sounds suspiciously like the upcoming US requirement for cars to have a 'kill switch' that will turn your car off if it decides you are impaired. Sorry, but I don't need my car deciding if I am having an issue or not. Tell you what, let ME decide what looks like you are having 'safety' issues... How about that? Who decides when you are impaired? Who decides 'what' is impaired.... Looks like it is about to be the US government for cars sold in the USA..... Happy you have found someone else (Mercedes) to try to keep you safe while you are driving. Very annoyed that Mercedes is the nagging mother-in-law in the back seat that cannot be shut off. May make me revisit my choice of vehicles in the next round.
In a nutshell yes, that's essentially what it is. I did once find a whitepaper on the logic behind ATTENTION ASSIST. It's based on research that was done by I forgot who. I'll post it if I can find it again. But in general, most of the safety systems cannot be permanently turned off. ATTENTION ASSIST is just one. There's more coming unfortunately. The EU mandated intelligent speed assist as of this year, so the moment you go 1 kph/mph over the speed limit the car starts yelling at you, and again it can only be disabled temporarily. The US government is considering to make this mandatory as well. Just like the impairment detection.
I'm with you on this in principal. The future of cars looks less and less interesting to me. Forced electrification and assistant systems just make new cars less and less appealing. For now the assistance/safety systems in my car stay out of my way and only intervene when warranted. The forward collision and auto braking has definitely reduced my reaction time in certain situation where the car ahead of me suddenly slammed on the brakes for no good reason, so I wouldn't wanna turn that off myself, and the ATTENTION ASSIT as said so far has never suggested that I need to take a break.
FWIW, my previous car in comparison had a much more annoying implementation of this. It suggested a break after 2 hours of driving regardless, so the MB ATTENTION ASSIST at least for me works way better by actually dynamically looking at my inputs and driving behavior.
Last edited by superswiss; 04-23-2024 at 09:18 PM.
I'm definitely not a nanny fan. But -
Last summer I got a late start to a 550 mile drive. It was going to be a long drive well into the night.
About 6 hours in, I got an Alert pop-up.
It was just as easy to dismiss as my Low Fuel warning. Hit the X.
But, I was glad that it came on because it reminded me that I was not as alert as a driver should be.
I think the algorithm that Mercedes uses is pretty accurate, and I actually trust it. Call me surprised.
Now I kind of consider it a necessity if you're plodding along on some vanilla interstate for hours, even with steering assist.
I like the Low Fuel warning as well.
Yeah there is definitely a tendency to overestimate one's alertness. I wish I had such assistance systems in a rental car I had during a trip to Iceland. The short days up there combined with jet lag caused me to fall asleep behind the steering wheel for the very first and so far last time in my life. My wife and I ended up down an embankment. We were both asleep in the car, but luckily instead of a lava rock field, we ended up in a patch of grass. Front axle was destroyed, but otherwise we were ok. Lane departure warning and something like attention warning probably would have kept me on the road. I felt ok up until it got pitch dark at like 4pm and my circadian rhythm decided it was time to shut down. I felt it coming and was trying to find a place where I can pull over, but my eyes shut before I had a chance.
I rarely see it because I rarely go on trips longer the 200 miles, but have found it's pretty accurate in determining if your driving is becoming erratic. As much as I dislike the nanny concept, I have to admit the times it came on I was indeed getting tired and probably need to take a break.
While I have never had the Attention Assist warning come on, I have frequently had the Active Steering Assist warning message come up on long stretches of straight highways, even though I always have at least one hand on the wheel.
04-23-2024, 04:58 PM
