rt5459

Hello everyone: I bought a 2023 GLE450 4matic and regretfully did not do my home work and bought a 450 without the drivers assistance package and just assume it came with it since my 2022 Volkswagen Atlas had it along with other features that my 450. Is there a place that can provide this . If so please let me know. Thanks in advance

TonyF61

I know adaptive cruise control with stop & go can be added; but, not sure about the drivers assistance package. There are some "vendors" that provide these type of services. You can find serveal posts on this forum. I for one have used RJ Automotive for a few items, and found them to be very reliable. The web site is www.rjautomotive.net. Your post will most certainly stir up other vendors. Be careful and do you homework before commiting your $$$.

GregW / Oregon

Adaptive cruise requires the front radar unit; does not seem it could be added easily?

djgiovanni

It is my understanding, if you have the dual cameras and front radar, that you have all the hardware to be able to just program the complete "Driver Assistance" package. However, I have only seen third parties offer programming for adaptive cruise control with auto stop and go and nothing more.

Any one?

GregW / Oregon

But you already have that hardware if you have the DA2PKG, right?

manbeing

I am not sure how you could do that because if you enable the driver assistance package, you will also need to replace your steering wheel.

rt5459

Thanks everyone for your feedback. RJ Automotive is offering a adaptive cruise control but not sure of all that it will do. I am supposed to hear more from them tomorrow.

elbekko

Count your lucky stars that you didn't spec it, and enjoy not having all the nanny features.

Take it from someone that regrets getting that package...

MBguy013

Curious, what regrets do you have? You can turn off all of those features when you don't want them active.

BenjaminKohl

You can activate a more basic radar cruise control but you can't activate the full steering assist for the semi autonomous driving. That can only come from the factory unfortunately.

manbeing

The driver assistance pkg comes with the semi autonomous driving? Good to know !

RockChips

Semiautonmous driving?

Are you just talking about the feature that yanks the steering wheel if you go off center?

RockChips

Nah, there is no semautonomous driving.

All it does is yank the steering wheel if you go off center.

BenjaminKohl

When using active distance assist, if you have steering assist turned on, the car will in theory steer itself to keep in the middle of the lanes. That is what I am talking about.

When cruise control is off, only the active lane keep assist that, as you say, yanks the wheel, is possible to be activated.

mikapen

You're talking about a different feature that uses braking on one side to pull you back in your lane. My experience is that it only "yanks" if you're headed for disaster by a hard veer off course. Like - You Messed Up.
I leave mine turned off for those times I need to stray beyond the lane, like missing that rock on the road.

On our street autos, MB has Level 2 Autonomous driving available, which is lane centering and auto cruise control (Distronic).
I am impressed at how well it works, and I feel it's safer over an 8 hour trip. It relieves stress and reduces Highway Hypnosis.
I never thought I'd like it because it's "just another Nanny," but I'm actually able to focus on surroundings better, and have a few Escape Paths identified in case I need one.

Mercedes has a bunch of Level 3 Autonomous passenger autos approved and operational in a couple of regions. Tesla and friends can't do / aren't approved for Level 3 yet.

BlueYonder

The Mercedes "autonomous" driving will keep you in your lane. It still requires you to keep you hands on the wheel. If it doesn't detect hands on the wheel, it will start *****ing at you and eventually disconnect and stop the car (a great feature if you pass out).

mikapen

​​​​​​Yes, "Level 2 Autonomous" requires the driver to touch the wheel every 30 seconds or so, after which the car will flash a warning light for about 15 sec, then beep for a period before it "hands off" control of the car to the driver. I've never gotten past the beeping. It's supposed to be annoying, as required.

This is a Fed requirement for all Level 2 cars.

Edit- I don't think any of this is available without Driver's Assist,Plus.

elbekko

The lane assist is downright dangerous and I've had it coded to be permanently disabled. It once tried to steer me into a snow bank because the plow hadn't plowed nicely between the lines. Slammed the brakes and yanked the steering wheel multiple times because it lost the line for some reason or another.
The adaptive cruise never reacts like it should. In busy traffic it leaves too much of a gap, and reacts too slowly. In calm traffic, it reacts too quickly. I hate that I can't toggle it to regular cruise. The only place I like it is on single-lane roads.
The steer assist just makes the car feel nervous and unsettled. And it nags about not yanking the steering wheel enough when you're on a dead straight road... I only ever use it when it's super windy, it's sort of nice to take the cognitive load off then. It only works with clear road markings, otherwise the "hold the steering wheel" nag is almost constant as it loses the lines and sees them again.
The traffic jam assist is worse than useless. You'd think it would just follow the car/truck in front, but no, it'll let a gap open up, then accelerate into it and brake heavily. Makes me nervous after a few minutes every time I try it. Oh, and it only works when the steering assist is enabled, which constantly tries to steer you into the middle of the lane, when I'm trying to stay to the side for motorcycles. It also doesn't work on single-lane roads, which ironically would be the only place it would work somewhat decently.
The automatic braking recently slammed the brakes because I "drove into oncoming traffic". Only that oncoming traffic moved over to give me a gap to drive past a parked truck in my lane. The other guy must've been very confused that I set off, braked heavily, and then was cursing heavily at the car.

Driving has gone from driving to babysitting. The adaptive cruise forces me to drive like a middle-lane-hogging dick, because it'll start braking long before you'd normally switch lanes.
I've learned to live with it fairly well over the past few months, but I still wish I hadn't wasted the money on speccing it.

ddeliber

I hear you about many of your points here. it is by no means perfect, but it is better than any other implementation I've tried (haven't tried Tesla's yet thought). You can adjust the distance to the car ahead that the system is pacing. At the default it seems like a half a mile between where tons of slower traffic just slides in and cuts you off. It is still a bit too large of a gap at the shortest setting, but if someone looks like they are going to ty to squeeze in I just accelerate a bit and close the gap manually. I also do the same if the driver in front is loitering in the left lane at 60mph to let him/her know that I'd like to get past. Not too close like you get in some places, but just enough to let them know. I have active lane keep assist off as it just sucks and you do not need to turn it on to use the semi autonomous driving. As I said earlier, It keeps the lane better than any other system I've tried. I just got back from Italy and the Lexus I rented had the feature but was pretty poorly implemented - gap way too big (especially for Italy where they seem to take pride in cutting people off) and the system danced too much between the left and right lane markers and when it wasn't dancing, it kept too damn close to the right side (along with a few other minor nits that aren't worth going into detail on).

Bottom line here is that I love the feature, it hasn't slammed on the brakes yet, it saves me frustration while cruising and it makes for a significantly improved driving experience. To each his own but I won't buy a car without the feature.

djgiovanni

I keep the "Active Lane Keeping Assist" OFF as it is very intrusive and absolutely annoying. I even kept the "Lane Keeping Assist" off on my W166 as the haptic feedback was extremely annoying. I think audible warnings are sufficient.

With that said, I do enjoy the adaptive cruise control and semi-autonomous driving. Wish it would take longer before prompting you to put your hands on the steering wheel. Only thing I hate is the "ping-pong" effect as the vehicle tries to stay centered on the lane, especially when you ask it to change lanes. At speeds above 55 MPH (on expressways), it is absolutely dangerous.

TonyF61

For years, I only purchased the basic crusie control, believing it wasn't worth the upgrade. I finally purchased disctronic and love it. I will never purchase another vehicle without it. I drive 35 miles each way, to and from work every day. Most of it is highway, and distronic does keep to much of a gap between vehicles. Probably a saftey margin issue. The last 2 miles is heavy stop and go. This is where I usually fall asleep. I love the way it takes off and stops automatically, and keeps in lane. It has saved me much greif and stress.

elbekko

Cutting people off is the national sport here in Belgium as well. Any car-sized gap is fair game, especially in stop-and-go traffic, so the system letting 2-3 car lengths open up just means it's constantly slamming the brakes.
Once a week I need to go past Brussels in rush hour, and I've given up on using any of the driver aids. They just make me nervous and ashamed at what the car is doing.

I cry for the state of driving assist systems if this is the best there is. Maybe it's because I'm a software developer and I want to be able to tweak a bunch of parameters to make it behave more like I want it to.

Aggie57

I added adaptive cruise to my GLE via RJ automotive. You don’t need to replace the steering wheel, just the switch panels either side which is pretty simple. All GLE’s come with the front radar to support this, and my car also has the illuminated star which is an invalid combination from the factory.

The ACC is great on SoCal freeways, even when cars are cutting in which is pretty much all the time. In the carpool/express lanes I wouldn’t be without it.

MBguy013

I see many don't like the distronic options but as others have said, I won't have another vehicle without it. Before I had my camera replaced due to being restricted view, related or not, I'd get the hands on the steering wheel notice too often. After replacement however, I don't get notified that often of keeping my hands on the wheel and most times, only have one hand in the wheel.

I normally don't have any of the assist options on unless I'm on the highway. I won't use lane keep assist on city streets as the 'jerking'. Is definitely too aggressive. I had it turned on the day I bought it and while driving home on the highway, the keep assist kicked in and pulled me hard to the right either due to crossing or nearing the lane marker or the semi next to me. Regardless It was at that point that I was like, thanks but no thanks and turned it off

I've found that if you turn the warning on, it doesn't seem to take action right away but if and when it does, it's terrible. When it kicks in, it scares the heck out of my wife and she asks me what I'm doing. Sorry babe, it's the car!

Mercedes really needs to dial down the amount of correction or provide additional options to the driver to control what happens like disabling the corrections but still have the audible and haptic feedback through the steering wheel

BenjaminKohl

Just to be clear there are two different radar systems. The base cars get the base radar, intended for the auto emergency braking, this is also the radar used for option 239 Distronic, also called distronic pro, which is not an option in the US but is an option in some markets. If you get ACC coded in, this is what you get. This is compatible with the illuminated star.

If you get the DA2 PKG/P20 Drivers assistant package, you instead get option 233 Distronic PLUS and code 266 Active Steering Assist. The base radar is replaced with a long distance radar, you get additional cameras, and the 3D badge on the front is replaced with a 2D flush badge with the star painted on, so as to not mess with the more intense radar. This is not compatible with the illuminated star on the GLE.