Rhschnauss

Nice Ride

Yes, and poorly at that. Car will drift from side to side like a drunken sailor, more so at lower speeds. I find it OK at speeds between 50 & 90 on straight roads. Any small bend in the road, the car will NOT stay in the lane. It is however extremely useful in stop and go traffic or slow moving traffic. I use it as often as I can.

Now for the Active Cruse Control portion, It works extremely well at keeping your speed and slowing down when traffic does, even to a complete stop. When traffic starts moving again, just pull back on the stalk or touch the gas, and the car will go back to the pre-set speed.

WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SET ACTIVE CRUSE IF CARS ARE STOPPED AT A LIGHT WAY IN FRONT OF YOU! Your vehicle will NOT stop until it is too late.. It will only work if the sensors spot the vehicle in front of you is actively moving.....

I have driven 300 miles straight without touching the Brake or Gas the entire time. Active Cruse Control (Distronic) is the best thing since slice bread!

Rhschnauss

Mitch Alsup

Active Lane uses a pair of camera and a Graphics processing Unit. The pair of cameras give an image from two <slightly different> directions. The software synthesizes a 3D image from the pair of 2D images.
From the 3D image, the SW determines where the lanes are, where the car is, and figures out how to stay within the lane boundaries. Then it commands the steering system to keep the car in the lane.

Distronic uses <something> and Radar to determine how far in front of you something is, then using the "how fast you are going" information (determined elsewhere), it determines a closing rate.
Based on the closing rate, it alters the speed such that the two vehicles to not overlap in space (crunch together).

MBS63AMG

I have been driving with Distronic for over 10 years and I'll never have a car without it again. The only problem from time to time is when someone is coming up from behind me very fast on the interstate in the passing lane, then when they get within about 20 feet of my rear bumper, they suddenly slow down and trail alongside me for maybe a mile. I guess their radar detectors are picking me up. It's funny but very annoying at the same time.

Mitch Alsup

The only issue I have with distronic is when cruising; I might see someone coming up behind me at some speed. I look to the front and see that I don't have to do anything because the behind will pass just before the obstacle in front is "too close"

Well, what happens is that just before I pullout from behind obstacle, the car brakes hard, and I loose all the speed needed to make a clean pass. While braking the car IGNORES the throttle pedal and makes it impossible not to cause a road hazard. This is very annoying.

Rhschnauss

syswei

The red hands are because you are supposed to continually pay attention, so MB forces you to engage with the wheel every 20 sec or so, as a check that you aren't texting or something with your phone, or otherwise aren't attentive. A couple years ago I saw a video of a fellow who taped a full beer can to the wheel to "fool" it into thinking that the driver was still paying attention to the road. I think the sensor senses torque, so if you are occasionally not touching the wheel, give it a bit of a wiggle when you do touch it again.