Recent incident. A friend was driving one of my Mercedes E-300s. At dinner she was telling me about her day and mentioned while driving, the proximity warnings went off and she saw the large truck in front of her came to an abrupt stop so she slammed on the brakes and barely avoided running into the truck.

I asked her if she noticed if the automatic braking activated before she could apply the brakes but she didn’t notice as she was too panicked. Based on how she described the event, I am certain she avoided a collision because of the automatic braking. The proximity warnings only go off when within a very short stopping distance of an object.

I told her the little bit extra I pay for having a car like that just paid for itself by avoiding an accident. I didn’t mention it wasn’t the first time the technology in the car helped her avoid an accident.

  • wvdheiden207@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    There’s also “PreSafe”. This will prepare the car for impact.

    • retract the safety belts
    • close the windows (leave a small opening for the pressure of the airbags)
    • close the sunroof
    • put the seats upright
    • build up brake pressure.
    • more

    As soon as she hit the brake there was full brake power. Tat might have helped.

    • unpolire@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I loaned one of my low-mileage 6.9s to my nephew who was in the military, for local driving on a weekend. He decided, without telling me, to drive it 500 miles north to see a girlfriend. Was fiddling with some jury-rigged portable sound system he put in it and crashed into the back of a pickup truck. Over $5,000 in damage to an immaculate, no accidents, collector car, all above the front bumper.

    • mr_claw@alien.topBEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      True. However, I’ve noticed the features are slightly more refined on Mercedes. My wife drives a Lexus that has nearly all the features of my GLC. Stuff like Auto Pilot, headlamp auto zone dimming etc. work way better on the Merc.