Hey guys! I have two questions, 2013 W221 full options have these two assist features. First one “Attentions Assist” when activated shows a small coffee cup on the instrument display. How can one know if this system really works? I have tried driving for over 300kms on highway tried faking tiredness to see if it shows the message but it didn’t…. maybe the system is smart enough to detect if person is genuinely tired lol ?

the other one “Speed Limit Assist” with help of secondary camera detects speed limit road signs and displays on the instrument display. But somehow I have discovered that it has been disabled in the system backend for the Middle East specifications.

So I tried to dig into this and found some W221 facelift (2010-2013) users in east Europe and Russia, it turns out that even they like the (ME spec) have this system disabled only the European (mainly German), Australian, and US spec. The Russians have found a hack that can enable SLA in vehicles of markets that have disabled it, since all the hardware is already fitted in the vehicle so it makes sense that there are options to enable it from the vehicle system coding, or so I read. It was is Russian so I used google translate to find what I could…. Question is, do any of your W221 facelifts have SLA working? Those who don’t have did you guys find out similar way to enable it?

because here in UAE I tried to ask the Mercedes-Benz dealerships and as expected I was told that my vehicle although consists the hardware but the software is controlled by the manufacturer and we do not have the authority to tamper it or change it in any way.

so out of curiosity did any of you tried to find out a way to enable Speed Limit Assist in W221 facelift models by any chance ?

I am adding a youtube link in which Mercedes-Benz shows this amazing option for facelift W221 models to fully understand what I am talking about.

so please let me know regarding Attention Assist and Speed Limit Assist. Thanks!

https://youtu.be/wwKUgWNcWME

 

On an S-class you are not tired enough for the attention assist to fire up a warning. Attention assist appeared already on earlier models, at least W212 and it works surprisingly well. I think W222 has a cluster menu where you can set the sensitivity too, did you have it on max? I set it to the mid position and have had a timely warning after a long trip.

The speed limit assist on a 2013 car is not really perfect. It does use a camera to read speed limit signs but the feature is disabled if the maps database does not provide "backup", speed limit information for local roads. The hack you are talking about makes sla work without the maps database. I have a 2014 W222 and it is irritating when the car puts so high priority to the database. I have old maps data and speed limits have changed on many roads I drive. The car then shows the speed limit that the camera has observed but soon after starts using the speed limit from the database. This even happens if there is a temporary lower speed limit like for construction work on a long section of a road. After a while the car indicates a higher speed limit than actually allowed. Nothing like typical Mercedes safety. I often feel the hacked version would work better than the one with speed limit database.

The later models have an option for cruise control adjusting according to the current speed limit. Wife's 213 has it but I have not driven the car really, it also has up-to-date maps data with on-line updates. Should work better.

 

Thank you for replying, I am constantly searching for a Mercedes nerd here who can hack into the system and enable it. You have mentioned valid points, some countries change speed limits so Mercedes disabled it specially on earlier models of S-Class. My friend’s W222 has it but I don’t… although the hardware is there just disabled in the firmware.

regarding the attention assist it does work because when I made a video from my phone I can see the “purple sensor” lights blinking just left on the COMAND screen just the parameters are unknown how it work because unlike W222 you cannot change the sensitivity of Attention Assist on W221.

just need to get the SLA working again thru hack ….. but how !!

 

Actually speed limit assist is not disabled for countries that have changing speed limits. My country has changing limits but SLA is still available on my 222 and later cars. If I remember right, on an early W212 it was available in Germany but the same car did not support it in my country. This was because at that time Mercedes did not have speed limit data (fixed) in their database for my country (even if this data may have been available from the maps data provider they used at that time).

You would need to look after some Vediamo experts for guidance on coding, assuming you have the equipment for the work.

 

Right got’cha… yes I am most certainly sure my car has dual camera system and hardware for SLA but I am unable to figure out why would they disable the feature on 221 and enable it on 222 models ….. really confused!

There are some videos of Russians showing how they activated SLA on 221 models and driving in action with working flawlessly.

i don’t know its kinda frustrating to know that you have something in your car but you can’t use it for no valid reason….