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This morning my vehicle prevented me from rear ending a vehicle in front of me. I was taking my car (which I picked up a week ago) to get a good coat of wax applied at a local detail shop. I was running late and pulled the sticky note with phone number so I could call the shop and let them know I was 10 minutes out. A light in front of me turned red....I was like 5 cars back from the first car at light. So, I'm looking at this sticky note thinking we are all moving forward at close to 5 MPH. Well....there was not as much room in between the cars in front of me as I thought. Suddenly I heard two beeps and the car applied the breaks hard came to and abrupt stop. I had my foot on the brake but the hard application was done autonomously. Stopped my car within 8 inches of the SUV in front of me. SUV another reason I could not gauge the space to the light and space between cars in line in front of me.
I chalk this all up to the various driver assistance packages. I did not have my cruise set as I was in city traffic with plenty of lights.
Regardless, car stopped and probably saved me thousands of dollars of damage....even with the very slow speeds. A Mercedes is not cheap to fix.
I'm sold on the safety features. Would have sucked to do that damage in the 2nd week of my ownership.
This morning my vehicle prevented me from rear ending a vehicle in front of me. I was taking my car (which I picked up a week ago) to get a good coat of wax applied at a local detail shop. I was running late and pulled the sticky note with phone number so I could call the shop and let them know I was 10 minutes out. A light in front of me turned red....I was like 5 cars back from the first car at light. So, I'm looking at this sticky note thinking we are all moving forward at close to 5 MPH. Well....there was not as much room in between the cars in front of me as I thought. Suddenly I heard two beeps and the car applied the breaks hard came to and abrupt stop. I had my foot on the brake but the hard application was done autonomously. Stopped my car within 8 inches of the SUV in front of me. SUV another reason I could not gauge the space to the light and space between cars in line in front of me.
I chalk this all up to the various driver assistance packages. I did not have my cruise set as I was in city traffic with plenty of lights.
Regardless, car stopped and probably saved me thousands of dollars of damage....even with the very slow speeds. A Mercedes is not cheap to fix.
I'm sold on the safety features. Would have sucked to do that damage in the 2nd week of my ownership.
Glad you did not bang up the new car.
It reminds me of my '06 S500 4matic. I had owned it one month and was rear ended while sitting at a stop light. The guy was on his cell phone and hit me going about 45 miles per hour. The W222 ('14 & '15 S Class) comes with flashing brake lights if it identifies an impending rear end collision. My '06 may not have been rear ended if I would have had the safety features like the '14 and '15 S Class. You simply cannot put a price on safety features.
So today, I took my first 4 hour road trip with my new car. I spent this time testing the steering assist. Contrary to what I thought before, I now realize the steering assist actually works very well and, I believe, as designed. I think some of the issues people are having are with their perceptions of what the system is supposed to do.
First, let me start off by saying, the steering assist only works for a period of 6 to 10 seconds before the car asks you to put your hands on the steering wheel. This happens every time and, I can't imagine it is anything but by design. You know you need to put your hands on the steering wheel because, while the steering wheel at the bottom of the display remains green, a new steering wheel pops up in the middle of the display with red hands on it. This is telling you that you need to take hold of the steering wheel.
If you put your hands on the steering wheel, even ever so lightly, it will recognize this, and the steering assist will continue to work and the steering wheel at the bottom of the display remains green.
If the steering wheel is green and, you don't put your hands on the steering wheel after the 6 to 10 seconds when the big steering wheel with the red hands comes up, then within a few more seconds, the steering assist will stop working and the green light will go off.
I tested this over and over during the past three hours and this is how it worked every single time. I found that when the steering assist was working, it made very sharp turns in both directions and stayed with the lanes. A couple of times, when the lane markers were not there or very fainted, it lost the steering assist.
Given that you must put your hands on the steering wheel every 6 to 10 seconds, one could never expect this car to drive itself, as some have anticipated.
With the proper expectations and, understanding the design of the system, I believe you will come to realize that the system actually works extremely well.
Last edited by LovinMercedes; 03-12-2015 at 06:33 PM.
My basic opinion...active cruise control is an interesting concept that,as seen on my 2011,needed a lot of work.I liked active lane change.It's certainly possible that MB has,in fact,improved the feature since 2011.
Thanks for your inputs, I think it should also work and worth the money when changing lanes and passing the car in front of you . You must look at the mirror before changing lanes and for a second you take your eyes off the car in front of you when looking at the mirror and what happens when the car in front of you abruptly stops .In this scenario , the car should step in and apply the brakes to fend off a collision
So, I cautiously have my foot on the brake just in case when I am about to begin a passing maneuver in 2-3 lane roads and the traffic is congested because I don't have Driver's Assistant Package or wait for the road to be clear if it's kinda rush hour as it's not worth the risk.
As for the understanding of the Driver's Assistance , and as the name suggests it's the assistant not a replacement for the driver .
Happy Days
The MB system is designed to follow a vehicle in front of it not the road!
I believe your statement needs correction.
According to the manual,
"At speeds of more than 37 mph (60 km/h), DISTRONIC PLUS Steering Assist focuses on lane markings that are present.
At speeds of 0 - 37 mph (0 - 60 km/h), DISTRONIC PLUS Steering Assist focuses on the vehicle in front, taking into account lane markings..."
This also coincides with my experience with our 2014 S. This is one of my favorite features in the car which makes long road trips a pleasure.
So today, I took my first 4 hour road trip with my new car. I spent this time testing the steering assist. Contrary to what I thought before, I now realize the steering assist actually works very well and, I believe, as designed. I think some of the issues people are having are with their perceptions of what the system is supposed to do.
First, let me start off by saying, the steering assist only works for a period of 6 to 10 seconds before the car asks you to put your hands on the steering wheel. This happens every time and, I can't imagine it is anything but by design. You know you need to put your hands on the steering wheel because, while the steering wheel at the bottom of the display remains green, a new steering wheel pops up in the middle of the display with red hands on it. This is telling you that you need to take hold of the steering wheel.
If you put your hands on the steering wheel, even ever so lightly, it will recognize this, and the steering assist will continue to work and the steering wheel at the bottom of the display remains green.
If the steering wheel is green and, you don't put your hands on the steering wheel after the 6 to 10 seconds when the big steering wheel with the red hands comes up, then within a few more seconds, the steering assist will stop working and the green light will go off.
I tested this over and over during the past three hours and this is how it worked every single time. I found that when the steering assist was working, it made very sharp turns in both directions and stayed with the lanes. A couple of times, when the lane markers were not there or very fainted, it lost the steering assist.
Given that you must put your hands on the steering wheel every 6 to 10 seconds, one could never expect this car to drive itself, as some have anticipated.
With the proper expectations and, understanding the design of the system, I believe you will come to realize that the system actually works extremely well.
Well said. This is the way the system is designed to work. It was not designed to be "self driving" as some have assumed. I also experimented with mine and had the same results.
Coming back home today for another 3 plus hours, I played with the steering assist a little more.
What I found is if you just very lightly touch the steering wheel consistently, the green light stays on, and the steering assist keeps working. I was just guiding it as you can see in the picture below.
I would not trust this 100 percent of the time, but I must say it did very good in steering the car for long periods of time. Even though I was steering the car with a light touch, I could definitely feel the steering assist doing most of the work.
Very cool.
Last edited by LovinMercedes; 03-14-2015 at 11:31 PM.
This morning my vehicle prevented me from rear ending a vehicle in front of me.
...
Suddenly I heard two beeps and the car applied the breaks hard came to and abrupt stop.
Yes this is why active cruise is also an important safety feature, independent of the convenience factor for long freeway driving. I've had active cruise in my past few MBs and find it very useful for these types of warnings. I mostly drive in the city (stop and go traffic, without active cruise turned on) and these "watch out the distance to the car in front of you abruptly changed" alerts are a nice backup. It's unfortunately an expensive option, but one I now look for in all my vehicles.
Yes this is why active cruise is also an important safety feature, independent of the convenience factor for long freeway driving. I've had active cruise in my past few MBs and find it very useful for these types of warnings. I mostly drive in the city (stop and go traffic, without active cruise turned on) and these "watch out the distance to the car in front of you abruptly changed" alerts are a nice backup. It's unfortunately an expensive option, but one I now look for in all my vehicles.
I did not have my cruise control set when the car braked hard and stopped before I hit the SUV in front of me. Now, this line of traffic I was in was going very, very slow. I had my foot on the brake, but like I said was looking for a phone number and if not for the car braking on its own I would have bumped it for sure.
I did not have my cruise control set when the car braked hard and stopped before I hit the SUV in front of me.
Correct, these safety features apply and are quite useful even without the active cruise explicitly engaged. In my case, city stop-and-go driving, the safety warnings always apply for the cars in front of me and that's more useful to me than the actual active cruise during freeway driving.
Finally tried the automatic parking feature today after owning the car for a month and a half. Had a pretty ideal situation with no traffic and time to experiment. It worked flawlessly. It is fascinating to see the steering wheel spin as the driver manipulates the gas and brakes. Will I use it all the time? Probably not. But under the right circumstances it is very helpful. Could I get along without it? Sure. But for me it is one of those "nice to have" features. Be aware...the driver still has to pay attention. It will put the wheel against the curb if you are not careful. Who wants curb rash on those beautiful 20's?
03-12-2015, 02:27 PM
