Z356

Can the new Blind Spot Assist on the Distronic Plus pkg (Option #266) be retrofitted if you already have the old #233 Distronics Plus on your MY07 S or CL? Where is the radar beam located that 'spots' a vehicle on your blind spot? Just wanted to know. Seems like a great new technology. Z356

LETO

http://www4.mercedes-benz.com/e/cars...totwinkel.html

This is the info on blind spot assist.

WSH

Many MY08 CL/S have Distronic w/o blind spot feature......only began deployment in ?>=Aug builds.....

Perhaps theoretically retrofittable....though I wouldn't trust any dealer for anything beyond oil change/tire replacement....(and typically trade-in cars before even wasting my time w/those messy/risky processes).....

Agree....like the active safety feature.....but am a fanatic re: looking over shoulder (not just using mirrors) before any lane change, so doubt it's very incremental to most competent drivers.....but 95%++ of drivers are incompetent.....

NJS430

It's well worth investigating. Blind Spot assist uses the existing radar sensors in the Distronic Package. It's really well thought out. Doesn't signal an alert when passing - only when a car is approaching at a faster rate of speed. Hard to explain, but it makes driving much more pleasurable. I imagine it will be standard equipment on most cars some day in the future. Once you have it, you wouldn't want to be without it.

Diesel Benz

I don't get this explanation. To me this sounds like the basic Distronic Plus operation, not Blind Assist. If you watch the video on the above link, you should see it is operating with sensors at the mirrors.

NJS430

I really don't think the radar sensors are in the mirrors - although the graphic does make it seem they are. The old Distronic Plus package used the radar sensors to replace the parktronic sensors mounted in the bumper. In addition to blind spot assist you also get Parking Guidance which is explained below. I would suspect they are all using the same radar system.
Mercedes adds Parking Guidance and Blind Spot Assist to their Distronic PLUS.

Mercedes-Benz just announced 2 new enhancements to its Distronic PLUS Adaptive Cruise Control.

• Parking Guidance
• Blind Spot Assist

Another enhancement is a 30% price reduction for Distronic PLUS. Together with the additional enhancements and a reduced price of $2,010 (compared to $2,870) the New Distronic PLUS is a significant value.
Parking Guidance and how it works:
A radar based system uses the Distronic PLUS sensors to assist drivers by identifying parallel parking spaces, and shows steering directions into the space in the multifunction display.
At speeds below 25 MPH, potential parking spaces are measured by side-mounted radar sensors as the vehicles passes by. If the vehicles is below 10 MPH. sufficiently large parking spaces are show in the instrument cluster.


Once the vehicles is stopped, and reverse is engaged, steering directions appear in the multifunction display to guide into the parking space.


All the driver has to do is maneuver the vehicles along the marked lines until reaching the stopping positions which are likewise marked in the multifunction display. An audible tone provides further assistance.
Blind Spot Assist and how it works:
Blind Spot Assist also utilizes the radar sensors to monitor the vehicle's "blind spot" and gives the driver visual and audio warnings then a vehicle has entered the blind spot. The blind spot stretches roughly from the B-pillar, to approximately 12 feet to the side left-right and 10 feet beyond the rear of the vehicle.
The system begins to monitor the blind spot once the driver is traveling above 20 MPH. If a vehicle is in the blind spot the driver is alerted by means of an illuminated red triangle in the exterior mirror. If the vehicle is in the blind spot and the drivers turn signal is activated, the visual display will begin to flash, accompanied with an audible tone.

Diesel Benz

Sounds reasonable, it is only the indicators in the mirrors that make the new car different from the old one? I know the park assist part but I thought the mirrors were using cameras like some other car brands do.

The Distronic would not see to the side of the car but I understand it could detect a car entering the blind spot. That would not be perfect for all scenarios, like the car not coming from behind, or ahead, on a parallel straight lane. But the text you have quoted seems to explain it works this way.

In this case it should be 100% feasible to "retrofit" the feature if the mirror lights were ignored (even those could be installed). It would still be pretty useful even if the mirror warning lights did not exist.

Google also seems to confirm it is radar based. References talk about six radar sensors, I don't see why MB did not give better marketing material and would have referred directly to the radar based parktronic sensors (two at the rear and four in the front).

MJ50

i'm sure steve can retrofit them....

Diesel Benz

I don't think you can prove yourself being smart by knowing that

Actually this would need IC coding among other things. I would be interested knowing how these "retrofit experts" deal with SCN coding. According to the official procedure, the accessory changes would need to be reported to the local MB headquarters and they would update the car database to allow an updated SCN to be pulled from the on-line system. Doesn't this make the work complicated for these experts? It would also become dependent on the attitude the local office has. Or are they clever enough to derive the new SCN on their own?

jeffreyy

He's right if anyone can do it, it's Steve.

J

Diesel Benz

What bothers me here is that I cannot find any other option for the door mirror glass than the one before the blind spot assist existed. Shouldn't there be a new mirror glass option with the indicator?

jeffreyy

I would think so.

J

jeffreyy

I would think also that there would either be different use or replacement of the lateral radar sensors, see 4th photo from the bottom in this link.

http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Jun06/2..._System_3.html

The issue is if the harness is different to the mirrors or to the sensors or if there are new sensor locations. That would make retrofit very difficult.

J

Diesel Benz

That figure looks to me like the normal position of one of the four "low frequency" radars at the front bumper.

From the previous posts I've understood the blind spot assistant really using "existing" Distronic Plus sensors (some cars use cameras, previously I thought MB also would have some new sensors at the mirrors). The only new HW would appear to be the mirror indicators, likely including some related wiring.

The blind spot assistance would make a lot of sense even if the mirror indicators weren't installed.

XJ9

AFAIK there are 2 companies out there that have developed the ability to bypass SCN and code their own features. The usual retrofit guys (steve, sunil) are not doing this but rather are just using off-the-shelf DAS and attempting to work through MB to get the SCN updated with varying success.

You hit the nail on the head that these guys are dependant on mood of the MB rep and I am sure that it will only take one screw-up to cause MB to start denying feature changes altogether since any misprogramming causes a huge headache where service is concerned. The good news is that one of the companies that has the ability to recode SCN is building a software suite that will allow aftermarket integrators to reprogram features at will.

jlee6412

i dont have that picture of my car when i am trying to parallel park in my s class. i have the 08 with the new distronic plus. i mean it just starts beeping like crazy but when i try parallel parking that image of a car with the direction i should go does not show up. how would i be able to use that?

Diesel Benz

Do you have the dynamic rear view camera option in the car?

Perhaps you have to activate the park assist view from the instrument cluster menu?

Eddie Knopp

Park Assist I believe was d/c'd in the US in '08 models. When mine was upgrades I lost it in the process.

jlee6412

Yes i do. I tried going through all the options and buttons but still nothing.

NJS430

When the "P" is Blue in the center of the instrument cluster, put the car in reverse and press the left button on the multifunction steering wheel. This will turn your speedometer into the diagram you see. The graphic goes in place of the speedometer and the rearview camera continues to function normally.

MBUSA still doesn't have an updated manual. If they want to be #1, you think they would at least provide correct documentation on how to use the features of the car. It's a great feature once you know you have it!

cjf_moraga

No - that is NOT correct. The early/current MY08 cars have the Park Assist feature deleted. (All that pressing the left button on the multi-funtion wheel does is ask if I want to reset the odometer) My dealer spent a day with my car trying to hack it but after various calls to the factory confirmed this feature is currently not accessible. Hopefully it will be a future patch that MB can provide along the lines of the MY07 upgrade. Not best pleased about this as it was even listed on the preliminary vehicle spec the dealer printed out for me before I purchased..

If anyone has a MY08 and can really access this feature - then I would love to hear it.

Chris

NJS430

Mine is an MY08 and I have both Blind Spot Assist and Parking Guidance. You need to have a build date of July 07 or later. If you have the new package, its listed on the window sticker. If you paid $2010 for Distronic Plus, then you have the two additional features. If you paid $2870 for Distronic Plus, then you don't. Now how does that make any sense!

cjf_moraga

You should have clarified the build date qualifier in your response. My S600's build date is June 2008. I did not pay anything extra for Distronics Plus as every feature should be included as standard. The dealer actually examined a whole series of S63's and S550's and there are a significant number of MY08's out there without this functionality - and I suspect a significant number of peeved drivers that MB should keep happy given how much we pay for these cars. (Does anyone know a product marketing/management contact/email at mbusa whom to complain to about this?)

One (rare) thing I will say to the credit of Lexus is that the LS 460 features/options packages are nowhere near as much a moving target as the current S-Class seems to be)

Chris

WSH

Recently drove a colleague's new CL63 w/Blind Spot Assist (my June build CL63 lacks feature)....very well-executed, useful feature; kudos to MB....esp useful to have more warning to quickly detect the many errant bicyclists who rapidly weave through lanes of slow/stopped urban traffic, e.g., in SF's financial district in evening rush hr.....

Don't know of any value of ParkAssist in US.....even in communist city of SF, self-parallel-park my CL63 daily in front of one of usual dining spots (where adjacent cars are often similarly carefully parked CL63 and/or 599)....and find combo of rear view cam; Parktronic sensors (esp front); and rt mirror tilt down function (to avoid scraping wheels along curb, while parking close as poss to curb to avoid door dings from cabs' doors swinging open) to be superb....and US suburbia is land of massive parking lots/garages w/many away-from-crowd pkg spots....even semi-urban street pkg in suburban towns like PaloAlto/BeverlyHills entails pkg spots large enough to fit a stretch limo, let alone an S/CL.....

Any tighter parallel parking situations (esp in terms of length) in urban areas merely entail quickly having a new S/CL w/bumper scrapes b/c most other cars don't have Parktronic, etc....and most drivers w/little to lose drive/park accordingly....they don't hand out those cars to just anyone

Z356

WSH: Not to deviate from topic, but I want to commend you on recognizing the increasingly polarized political climate of what has been always one of America's most beautiful cities - San Francisco. It is heading in the same direction as the radicalized London of Ken 'The Red' Livingstone. Talk about 'Blind Spot Assist'...this Board of Supervisors needs help! Happy New Year. Z356