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Disappointed by W223 Distronic (Adaptive) Cruise Control
I think the W223's Distronic/Adaptive cruise control is terribly flawed in two respects:
1. The adaptive breaking often engages too late (regardless of distance setting) and is disconcertingly abrupt and forceful. These issues are exacerbated when your car is approaching an already stopped vehicle. It's as uncomfortable as it is alarming from a safety perspective.
2. If your car is stopped behind another vehicle for more than a few seconds, the adaptive acceleration function doesn't engage until you press the accelerator to get your car moving again.
My wife has a new X5 with adaptive cruise control that is exponentially superior to the W223, and her car cost about 60% of mine. I'm sure there are non-luxury cars that have this figured out better than Mercedes. Hopefully it can improve with software updates.
Can't really comment on the first point as I've never tried DISTRONIC in the W223, but I have DISTRONIC in my 2019 C63 and it starts slowing down way before coming up on slower cars. It actually factors in live traffic and if I'm coming up on congestion it starts slowing down in advance knowing that traffic is slowed down up ahead, so I never really get these kinds of panic stops as you are describing. Do you have live traffic and route-based speed adaptation enabled? With both of those enabled it will know about traffic congestions, intersection, exits etc. and proactively slow down instead of just relying on the radar sensor and slow down at the last moment. With active route guidance it will even know where you need to exit the highway and start slowing down as you approach the exit. W/o route guidance it will slow down if you indicate ahead of the exit.
As for the second point, that depends on the type of road you are driving. On a divided highway, DISTRONIC stays active for up to 30 seconds in my case, so that works pretty well in stop&go traffic w/o me having to kick it off regularly. On surface streets this is reduced to 3 seconds for safety reasons, since there might be pedestrians and cyclists around you. I never really use DISTRONIC on surface streets. For me it's mostly a highway driving tool. I thought they even extended it from 30 seconds to 60 seconds with the latest generation in the W223.
Last edited by superswiss; Sep 3, 2023 at 10:13 PM.
Regarding the first point, I'm fairly certain that with the W223 all the features attendant to the Disetronic system are automatically activated if the system is activated. A 223 owner can correct me if I'm wrong, but I've gone through all the system settings and don't any feature that would mitigate this issue.
Regarding the second point, it's certainly possible that what I'm describing as a bug is actually a feature. If so, vehicle manufacturers are evidently divided on this issue. I strongly prefer the BMW approach. Drivers need to remain vigilant t in all circumstances when using adaptive cruise control. Moreover, the software in the W223 is supposed to recognize pedestrians and emergency stop if need to prevent a pedestrian collusion. With all that said, I can understand Mercedes perspective and put that one under the "it is what it is" bucket. The first issue is completely unacceptable.
I haven't experienced any problems with it on my S580. But I only use as a cruise control. I turn it off when traffic is becoming disrupted or extremely congested.
The settings are explained starting on page 231. You can also choose between Dynamic or Comfort driving style. This was previously based on the DYNAMIC SELECT mode, but now can be set independently. I'd assume the default is Comfort and all the route-based speed adaptations turned on. Perhaps another W223 owner can confirm if their experience is the same. If so, it would be a step backwards from previous generations. That wouldn't surprise me much as I find the software in a lot of the newer models has taken a step back in quality and functionality. Starting with MBUX the software is buggy and incomplete. You may wanna check with your dealership if there's an update for the driver assistance. It's not updated OTA, and if I remember correctly there is an update for some of the models. I know some owners of the W206 have reported phantom braking and similar issues and that there's an update to supposedly fix at least some of the issues.
Last edited by superswiss; Sep 3, 2023 at 10:28 PM.
Thanks for the post. Yep. I looked at the manual right in respect of this issue on day 1. Route based speed adaptation is turned on by default. Based on dynamic is actually the default driving condition. I tried switching to comfort-made no difference. One wrinkle: I have the S580e. I think it's unlikely that this would make a difference, but I suppose it's not impossible.
2019 SL450, 2019 E450 Luxury Trim Wagon, 2024 BMW I7 xDrive60
I’ve been using these types of cruise controls for many years now. The systems in my W222 S Class sedans performed in a much more “comfortable” manner, in comparison to the system in my 2022 S580. I’ve tried all the different settings and the system either engages too early or too late and sometimes it is downright scary. Not good.
Yeah, I also think it brakes late as well. It’s very unnerving.
At first I didn’t trust it, braking ahead if I saw traffic drastically slowing down on the freeway. But I’ve kind of grown accustomed to it and let it brake on the freeway if traffic is slowing down or coming to a complete stop up ahead. I’m still not completely comfortable with it, and my foot will be hovering over the brake pedal, but it will stop you but in a manner that is way, way more aggressive than what I would normally do. I’m just worried that the driver behind won’t stop in time because this thing essentially slams on the brakes.
Stop and go traffic does work for me, but I think it will release only if it starts moving within a certain time frame.
Also, I had a 2020 X5 and I agree it wasn’t nearly as aggressive or panic inducing lol.
Appreciate both of you confirming that I'm not crazy. What a disappointment. How do you go backwards on this sort of thing and fall so short of the mark relative to your competition when you're charging well north of 6 figures? Like I said, hopefully this gets resolved with software update.
2019 SL450, 2019 E450 Luxury Trim Wagon, 2024 BMW I7 xDrive60
Originally Posted by cd8705
Appreciate both of you confirming that I'm not crazy. What a disappointment. How do you go backwards on this sort of thing and fall so short of the mark relative to your competition when you're charging well north of 6 figures? Like I said, hopefully this gets resolved with software update.
I can only offer my opinion, but having owned 17 brand new, higher end MB's, along with four used ones and many other new & used vehicles, I feel as though I have a decent idea on this: I believe that during the CCP virus fiasco, new vehicles that were in the final stages of development at MB, were not fully and properly tested and even when issues were found, they were not properly dealt with and the vehicles were rushed to market. All new models have issues, but some of the issues being experienced by owners of the W223, along with the new R232 SL's, the new GLC's & others are experiencing issues that I consider to be quite major, causing customers to be put in harms way. Unacceptable. The worst thing, is the way at least MBUSA tries to gloss over these issues, like they are no big deal and that WE--whom you would think would be MB's most valued customers--must somehow be to blame. Very disappointing.
There are a lot of systems on this car which don't work well, the ACC is one of them. The only aspect which I would say is par with other competing cars is the lane keeping which isn't the best, but in the pack. The distancing for braking/decelerating is terrible, in my experience almost everyone does it better, every brand, at every price point.
I haven't owned a car that nails it perfectly and I've owned a lot of cars so I'm willing to give MB some slack on this one but I still find it a little baffling that their uber sedan has such poor performance in an important and frequently used system.
So disappointing. Yea, the active steering is mediocre-definitely not as bad as the adaptive breaking. I the lane change assist is pretty nifty. No issues with it as of yet.
I think the W223's Distronic/Adaptive cruise control is terribly flawed in two respects:
1. The adaptive breaking often engages too late (regardless of distance setting) and is disconcertingly abrupt and forceful. These issues are exacerbated when your car is approaching an already stopped vehicle. It's as uncomfortable as it is alarming from a safety perspective.
2. If your car is stopped behind another vehicle for more than a few seconds, the adaptive acceleration function doesn't engage until you press the accelerator to get your car moving again.
My wife has a new X5 with adaptive cruise control that is exponentially superior to the W223, and her car cost about 60% of mine. I'm sure there are non-luxury cars that have this figured out better than Mercedes. Hopefully it can improve with software updates.
Anyone else share my disappointment here?
Your 100% correct, its jarring. I also have a Tesla MSP and its nothng like this, smooth like silk when taking off and stopping. Now when Im in traffic I have to lower the speeds to like 15mph otherwise if i leave it at 50 itll literally try to take off even if only 30 feet are open in front of me and then slam on the brakes to stop. Regarding point two, its only when its stopped for more then 5 seconds i think
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