great watch, thanks. Similar to gladwell looking at Toyota 2009 scandal (see link above)

 

Yep, they did. Terrible situation, but the reality was the driver even with his training as a law enforcement officer just overlooked many ways he could have easily rectified the situation. In a crisis we make all kinds of mistakes.

I had a Lexus ES when that happened (the driver in that case was driving a loaner ES350), and I remember the dealer confiscated my Lexus OEM rubber mats and they took a saw and cut two notches out of the bottom of my gas pedal, all without my consent. I was FURIOUS and I got them to give me my rubber mats back, but unfortunately the damage to my gas pedal was done.

 

they took a mustang 5.0 and did that - stopped the same as a camry

 

Yes, it happens too often and many times it's an elderly driver. Nobody wants to be told they are no longer fit to drive, but many countries have now started to require yearly or every two year evaluation of driver fitness above age 70 or so. Happens way less in places where manual transmissions are more prevalent. You are not gonna careen into anything with the foot on the clutch pedal and accidentally pressing the accelerator, combined with the natural reflex of putting one foot on the clutch and one on the brake also makes it less likely to happen. I just came back from a month in Europe driving a rental with manual transmission. I'm back to pressing an imaginary clutch pedal in my car .

 

about one month in owning a brand new 2014 E63S, a couple times at the intersection just like you're describing my accelerator pedal went dead. Fortunately, a trip to the dealership updated the software, and that was a non-issue ever again. But that could've been catastrophic if I was trying to take a left against traffic and I lost all power and was just stuck there. this was a no issue documented in a TSB. @konigstiger , wherever he may be and I hope he is well or at peace, brought this to all of our attention in his TSB thread.

 

I love my 6 speed manual SLK320.

Like Peter Ubers says, if it can get stuck in idle, it can get stuck at 100%.

 

Thats actually not necessarily true at all, and even if it did putting your foot down on the brake would kill the throttle.

Losing connection to the throttle sensor is a totally different thing than having a false signal sent by the TPS.

 

True. I found many of Konigstiger’s TSBs very useful, but they were all for slightly older MBenz cars. None of the TSBs clearly referenced the X167 GLS (yet). However, I did conclude that Mbenz 100% knew and acknowledged this issue even started at least in their 2014 cars all the way through early 2020s in documented TSB. Despite this, they couldn’t get their act together since 2014, even now until 2025 for 2022 model year cars now, and I bet the same issue persists through 2026 model years. It’s sad and embarrassing engineering. In our case, it happened at an intersection after a traffic light, which could kill you sometimes if you are stuck in the middle of intersection (even worse on a highway as reported by so many cases on the web). Of course, it takes 4-5 seconds to realize what’s going on, but by then, the car was already inside the intersection, engine is running idle as the RPM was indicating, fuel level is good, and it is just rolling freely pass the traffic light line by its slow idle momentum.

You would think that after (I bet) hundreds of reports like this Mbenz would do something or care and issue a recall just to be safe…. Well not when their OTA game is trash. One quick google search and you will find dozens, and one Cargurus post alone has over 20 owners of several models reporting the same, and some of them reported the issue happened 3 times even after useless TSB software update… instead of taking this seriously and even issue a recall for each and every car, they only issued a TSB that they updated twice, once every four years, from 2014 to 2020, and haven’t updated it yet in 2025 for any of the 2020-2025 model years. And again, you would think they would take a fatal issue like this seriously, but they are more focused on their EQ/EV line, leaving customers at risk with poorly designed electronics and low-quality flagship cars that can strand you anytime, anywhere. I don’t care much about the build quality in a family car, but I don’t want it to get stranded or lose the accelerator padel. I was told they updated the software but couldn’t replicate the issue anyway. I’ll take them for their words for now and we’ll be extra careful (it’s good that we know what we know and can prepare mentally if it happens again), there is nothing else I can do meanwhile.

 

I’m amazed you let your family drive around in a car you have such serious safety concerns about.

 

Thanks for all of the replies. I agree most likely cause human error. Yes I’m elderly (78). Yes car was turned right to finish parallel parking. No aftermarket mats same ones since purchased. Shoes loafers.
Car recently serviced with battery replacement. Further info: no audible beeps from distance warning system at any time, car initially wouldn’t move into reverse when maneuvering. After several attempts it finished its rearward part of the parallel parking. Thought this odd but assumed some sensor had picked up sign further behind car. Went then to move forward to finish parking. Car initially wouldn’t drive and wouldn’t move. Car directly in front of spot I was parking in so thought sensor had registered this but still no audible warnings. So shifted in and out of drive and tried again. Still no going forward. Same thing had happened in reverse so in and out of drive again for my 3rd (and final) attempt. This time when I applied gas the car lunged forward and events transpired as reported in initial post. I honestly believe it was a combination of failed technology and human error. I didn’t stop and restart car. Maybe that would have changed outcome.
Whatever happened I hope it never happens to you!!!

 

Did it move very slowly or not at all? Are you aware of the Drive Away Assist feature, which deliberately limits the speed of the car to 1 mph when obstacles are detected nearby? This always triggers when I pull out of my garage, and generally I don't apply throttle when parallel parking unless the car is on an incline. Most times idle is enough to move the car into the parking spot.

https://www.mbusa.com/en/owners/manu...ve-away-assist

 

Were you using the automatic parallel parking system? Sounds to me like you were fighting it trying to handle parking itself.

 

thank you for your candor and all these critical details. It definitely changes the landscape of our understanding (at least mine).

Were you attempting a manual parallel park or were you using the automated self-parallel park feature?

The automated one, which I think you were using is doing all sorts of calculations and processing of sensors as you said and realize - and it detected issues with obstacles and angle of the wheel or something so it seemed to halt everything. At that point you could cancel the process and park manually.

I am glad you are ok and not seriously hurt. Thank you again for sharing

 

exactly.

 

you say you were parking "manually"

then you say the car needed to "finish the rearward part"

 

Another thing, the car does not like toi shift from drive to reverse or reverse to drive if its rolling much at all. Often I will back out of my driveway and go to drive while its still rolling back and it won't do it, so you wind up in neutral.

 

interesting - I wonder if @Ghilsman found himself in neutral a few times as a result of this ...

can this be defeated? How would one "rock out" of a snow bank?

 

I haven't run into this, but it also ends up in neutral if the stalk isn't pushed far enough. This sometimes happens to me if I'm too casual and then end up in neutral accidentally. On the other hand when I do want to go into neutral I sometimes push it too far. Can be a bit finicky in my experience.

 

Its totally dependent on how you drive. The screen tells me that I have to be stopped in order to change gears when it happens

 

I was manually parking. Car did not respond whatsoever when I attempted to complete the parking maneuver to gas pedal input. On third attempt it lunged as described. It was stationary until the lunged. Car was never in neutral.

 

and the tachometer didn't rev up and down, you weren't in neutral when you were trying to accelerate? Thank you for this good information.

 

No revving of engine whatsoever

 

"Car did not respond whatsoever when I attempted to complete the parking maneuver to gas pedal input. On third attempt it lunged as described."

Thanks for sharing and for your candor. Could it have not responded two times as it was in a collision avoidance mode? Or a wheel stuck in a small rut? And the third attempt served to either over ride the collision avoidance system or overpower the stuck wheel.

 

No stuck wheel or pothole

 

Don’t be amazed. You and your family drive a car that was designed by the same company, with confirmed documented TSBs for the issue for so many years across the entire lineup year over year, in fact as far back as 2008. At some point you also drove a car that was listed on existing TSBs for the same issue. I expect the X167 and W223 and other 2021-2025 models to have TSBs soon too around the same time other gens go their TSB (end of their lifecycle from what i found). Waiting for it to occur for the first time or 2nd time is the only difference. We are much more prepared now that it happened once, than if we’ve never experienced it and waiting for it to happen. Is it enough for us to sell it? It’s marginal and we opted to keep it. If/when it happens again after the service that was done, we will be out of it. If we get another GLS, first thing we’ll do is to ask and demand for the same service and checkpoints regardless. I have exchanged emails with MBUSA corporate about the issue, uploaded videos, and cc’d my attorney too, asking exactly what the issue is, and they claim they have been using accelerated padel controllers by the same manufacturer for 2 decades now, and they are “working on it”. It took them 5 weeks to respond, likely after also getting their response reviewed by legal. They “claim” that they are aware of the issue though which I respected.