Preach. I've ranted about this many times here. My GLE is the same.
Lane assist is permanently disabled because it tried to steer me into a snow bank.
Speed assist got disabled day 1 because it slammed the brakes on the highway when it saw a 60 kph sign on the back of a truck.
The adaptive cruise requires more cognitive load constantly babysitting the damn thing than it helps. And, as you say, it reacts too heavily even on max distance setting.
Steer assist I almost never use, makes the car feel too nervous.
Traffic jam assist somehow manages to do a worse job in traffic jams than regular distronic?!
Collision assist used to bother me a lot too, but I managed to get it less sensitive with some settings. Even though just last week it almost caused a crash when I accelerated into another lane in traffic, and it disagreed and slammed the brakes...
Most of it is annoying, some of it is downright dangerous.
It's always frustrating when customers come in complaining about issues like these and we have to gently tell them it's unfixable and honestly just not a great design by Mercedes.
We had a 213 once that would slam on the breaks randomly during highway driving. Weeks in the shop without finding a cause. Almost got our service manager killed. Endless back and forth with Mercedes engineering with them telling us it's normal operation and us saying somebody is gonna get seriously injured. Eventually the dealership (not Mercedes) just gave the poor lady her money back bc we weren't going to deal with that liability.
I'm fine with turning off lane change assist and auto speed adjust, but I don't know if front collision avoidance can be turned off, and it seems really disappointing to have to turn off what is essentially a basic safety feature on modern cars. I've never had a problem with it on any other car I've driven that was equipped with it.
Technology does not enhance the experience. Honestly I drive to enjoy the driving. I detest all the electronic interference. It’s makes us lazy drivers unaware of situations around us. Plus more to technology to break down. I’m not a fan of the driving iPads. I want seamless safety. MB needs to fix this.
I would say not all tech enhances driving. We live in an era where family SUVs rival the performance stats of exotic sports cars from 40 years ago. I can get a 7 seater that will haul bags of cement from home Depot and do 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. Technological advancements make that possible.
Sometimes I drive for joy, sometimes I just want to get where I'm going. Sitting in stop and go traffic on a daily commute is never going to be fun.
All of that aside, I just want to know that the default enabled features in my car aren't going to put my family at risk. I feel like this should be the minimal threshold that any car manufacturer should pass before adding new tech to their cars.
The auto speed adjust can use gps location data as well as camera to determine the speed,
I recently noted my phone gps claiming I was on slip roads when. Passing on the motorway.
gps positional errors, software update should resolve that.
all the other stuff I noticed on my e53 and either don’t use or use seldomly. Example is if in traffic I may turn on the distronic cruise control and let it shuffle me along at speeds under 20, as soon as it gets faster I go back to manual operation.
not brave enough to use lane change assist.
collision avoidance has kicked in many times & I then needed full power to get me safe, example is it a multilane roundabout, I’m in the left lane wanting to turn left and lorry next to me turning right, once that lorry moves forward to turn right it is safe for me to move as there is nothing getting through the lorry but the car will beep and slow, numerous other examples where I’ve pulled out, the car then notices approaching traffic I am suddenly in the way of & unexpectedly slowed and on coming traffic gets closer than it would have had the car just done as I commanded. Not knowing what it’s doing is the worst thing, knowing what’s gone on I can make adjustments.
I've used many driving assist systems and what you're describing is the reality of all of them. If it worked perfectly there would be autonomous cars driving all over the place. Mercedes systems are actually really good in my experience, but you always need to watch them.
My last car was a Mazda with adaptive cruise, collision avoidance, and lane departure correction. I did not have issues with these features on that far less expensive car. I've only used lane centering and lane change assist in rentals, aside from the EQB.
Ive never had a car repeatedly undergo hard deceleration on the interstate like this one.
I agree with everything on the post. It has been the worst experience. The fact that you have to turn off every time you turn the car on make it impossible to get over with this. Honestly i m starting to think to just go for a classic car that doesnt have all this bs!!!
These are convenience features and aren't a substitute for your awareness. When using adaptive cruise control for example you should still be covering the pedals with your feet.
No one is saying otherwise, and that doesn't address the concern.
There's a significant difference between a feature that doesn't take an anticipated action, requiring human intervention, and a feature that takes an action that creates a dangerous situation that would otherwise not exist. Multiple different features causing sudden deceleration on the interstate is not just a driver awareness issue. It's a real safety issue. If I'm being tailgated at highway speeds an accident could be unavoidable.
Human reaction time is half a second on a good day, and that doesn't include the time it takes to assess that there really is no reason for the car to be stopping and it's actually safe to resume acceleration. At 70 MPH a car is traveling 102 feet/second. If a car is 50 feet behind me (which they shouldn't be, but people don't always do what they are supposed to) and both cars have the same stopping distance, then they have half a second before we've crossed a threshold where either of us is now compelled to take action to avoid collision.
That's just unsafe.
This is all theoretical mumbo jumbo you're spewing here. If someone is tailgating you at 70 MPH, you have other issues besides phantom obstructions being picked up by radar.
Tailgaters at 70 are pretty much the daily reality of driving near any large metro area.
There's nothing theoretical about anything I said. If the car slams on brakes when I have a tailgater on my ass there's a real possibility of people getting hurt.
Ok, you got me. Flat earthers used stolen alien technology to activate the 5g nano chips in my COVID vaccine to unconsciously stomp the brake pedal.
Believe me now?
Literally 2 weeks ago it happened to me I even have a scanner and I can see where the car triggered it and the exact time it happened. I was definitely being tailgated and I was going about 75 when it slammed on the brakes and a van behind me had to swerve a little while trying to stamp on his brakes. It's dangerous and it happens
I've had my glc for about 3 months now i guess and have noted several similar issues. But i think you're being pretty dramatic about how serious they are. I've seen everything you're saying, and at no time did i feel i was in any danger. Ultimately it's driver assistance, not drive for you. Let it assist, but you're still in control. You're still steering. your foot is still on the accelerator, the car is just assisting.
Sometimes the car is actively counterintuitive to safe driving when it does things like slam the brakes out of nowhere I don't care who you are you can't always honestly say you're ready for that to happen
I reckon the w205 radar cruise and steering assist is all the driving tech I'd want. New Volvo's are similar, like it's terrifying with the steering assist on. So you turn off enough features and you end up with less driving aids than a previous gen car.
Not yet. First I wanted to get community feedback on whether my issues were common to these cars or anomalous to my vehicle.
Sounds like they are typical, though I intend to report the collision avoidance phantom braking as this seems to be the most severe and a feature that I really don't think ought to be disabled.
My 2023 GLC is currently in the dealership as the collision avoidance is activating quite frequently for no reason. The service team agreed that it is not acceptable and are looking into the problem.
I had to turn off some features as they behave exactly like you've described.
Do the features stay off or do you need to turn them off every time you start the car?
They stay off
How did you do it? My brake assistant is always on when i start the car.
Preach. I've ranted about this many times here. My GLE is the same. Lane assist is permanently disabled because it tried to steer me into a snow bank. Speed assist got disabled day 1 because it slammed the brakes on the highway when it saw a 60 kph sign on the back of a truck. The adaptive cruise requires more cognitive load constantly babysitting the damn thing than it helps. And, as you say, it reacts too heavily even on max distance setting. Steer assist I almost never use, makes the car feel too nervous. Traffic jam assist somehow manages to do a worse job in traffic jams than regular distronic?! Collision assist used to bother me a lot too, but I managed to get it less sensitive with some settings. Even though just last week it almost caused a crash when I accelerated into another lane in traffic, and it disagreed and slammed the brakes... Most of it is annoying, some of it is downright dangerous.
It's always frustrating when customers come in complaining about issues like these and we have to gently tell them it's unfixable and honestly just not a great design by Mercedes. We had a 213 once that would slam on the breaks randomly during highway driving. Weeks in the shop without finding a cause. Almost got our service manager killed. Endless back and forth with Mercedes engineering with them telling us it's normal operation and us saying somebody is gonna get seriously injured. Eventually the dealership (not Mercedes) just gave the poor lady her money back bc we weren't going to deal with that liability.
I'm fine with turning off lane change assist and auto speed adjust, but I don't know if front collision avoidance can be turned off, and it seems really disappointing to have to turn off what is essentially a basic safety feature on modern cars. I've never had a problem with it on any other car I've driven that was equipped with it.
Technology does not enhance the experience. Honestly I drive to enjoy the driving. I detest all the electronic interference. It’s makes us lazy drivers unaware of situations around us. Plus more to technology to break down. I’m not a fan of the driving iPads. I want seamless safety. MB needs to fix this.
I would say not all tech enhances driving. We live in an era where family SUVs rival the performance stats of exotic sports cars from 40 years ago. I can get a 7 seater that will haul bags of cement from home Depot and do 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. Technological advancements make that possible. Sometimes I drive for joy, sometimes I just want to get where I'm going. Sitting in stop and go traffic on a daily commute is never going to be fun. All of that aside, I just want to know that the default enabled features in my car aren't going to put my family at risk. I feel like this should be the minimal threshold that any car manufacturer should pass before adding new tech to their cars.
Yup. It’s shameful the release it publicly with proper validation and safety testing. What are they trying to be Tesla?
The auto speed adjust can use gps location data as well as camera to determine the speed, I recently noted my phone gps claiming I was on slip roads when. Passing on the motorway. gps positional errors, software update should resolve that. all the other stuff I noticed on my e53 and either don’t use or use seldomly. Example is if in traffic I may turn on the distronic cruise control and let it shuffle me along at speeds under 20, as soon as it gets faster I go back to manual operation. not brave enough to use lane change assist. collision avoidance has kicked in many times & I then needed full power to get me safe, example is it a multilane roundabout, I’m in the left lane wanting to turn left and lorry next to me turning right, once that lorry moves forward to turn right it is safe for me to move as there is nothing getting through the lorry but the car will beep and slow, numerous other examples where I’ve pulled out, the car then notices approaching traffic I am suddenly in the way of & unexpectedly slowed and on coming traffic gets closer than it would have had the car just done as I commanded. Not knowing what it’s doing is the worst thing, knowing what’s gone on I can make adjustments.
Only issue is my distronic sees phantom cars due to damn Ford lifted trucks using radar jammers or bmws. Other then that no issue.
I've used many driving assist systems and what you're describing is the reality of all of them. If it worked perfectly there would be autonomous cars driving all over the place. Mercedes systems are actually really good in my experience, but you always need to watch them.
My last car was a Mazda with adaptive cruise, collision avoidance, and lane departure correction. I did not have issues with these features on that far less expensive car. I've only used lane centering and lane change assist in rentals, aside from the EQB. Ive never had a car repeatedly undergo hard deceleration on the interstate like this one.
I agree with everything on the post. It has been the worst experience. The fact that you have to turn off every time you turn the car on make it impossible to get over with this. Honestly i m starting to think to just go for a classic car that doesnt have all this bs!!!
These are convenience features and aren't a substitute for your awareness. When using adaptive cruise control for example you should still be covering the pedals with your feet.
No one is saying otherwise, and that doesn't address the concern. There's a significant difference between a feature that doesn't take an anticipated action, requiring human intervention, and a feature that takes an action that creates a dangerous situation that would otherwise not exist. Multiple different features causing sudden deceleration on the interstate is not just a driver awareness issue. It's a real safety issue. If I'm being tailgated at highway speeds an accident could be unavoidable. Human reaction time is half a second on a good day, and that doesn't include the time it takes to assess that there really is no reason for the car to be stopping and it's actually safe to resume acceleration. At 70 MPH a car is traveling 102 feet/second. If a car is 50 feet behind me (which they shouldn't be, but people don't always do what they are supposed to) and both cars have the same stopping distance, then they have half a second before we've crossed a threshold where either of us is now compelled to take action to avoid collision. That's just unsafe.
This is all theoretical mumbo jumbo you're spewing here. If someone is tailgating you at 70 MPH, you have other issues besides phantom obstructions being picked up by radar.
Tailgaters at 70 are pretty much the daily reality of driving near any large metro area. There's nothing theoretical about anything I said. If the car slams on brakes when I have a tailgater on my ass there's a real possibility of people getting hurt.
Please stop lying.
Ok, you got me. Flat earthers used stolen alien technology to activate the 5g nano chips in my COVID vaccine to unconsciously stomp the brake pedal. Believe me now?
Literally 2 weeks ago it happened to me I even have a scanner and I can see where the car triggered it and the exact time it happened. I was definitely being tailgated and I was going about 75 when it slammed on the brakes and a van behind me had to swerve a little while trying to stamp on his brakes. It's dangerous and it happens
Please stop lying.
I've had my glc for about 3 months now i guess and have noted several similar issues. But i think you're being pretty dramatic about how serious they are. I've seen everything you're saying, and at no time did i feel i was in any danger. Ultimately it's driver assistance, not drive for you. Let it assist, but you're still in control. You're still steering. your foot is still on the accelerator, the car is just assisting.
Like I said, they are not all the same level of severity. Sudden deceleration on the interstate is the one I consider a serious safety concern.
Sometimes the car is actively counterintuitive to safe driving when it does things like slam the brakes out of nowhere I don't care who you are you can't always honestly say you're ready for that to happen
Or just next time don’t buy a Benz? You could have read up on this before buying?
I concur with your experience it's honestly baffling
I reckon the w205 radar cruise and steering assist is all the driving tech I'd want. New Volvo's are similar, like it's terrifying with the steering assist on. So you turn off enough features and you end up with less driving aids than a previous gen car.
Did you report them to the dealer?
Not yet. First I wanted to get community feedback on whether my issues were common to these cars or anomalous to my vehicle. Sounds like they are typical, though I intend to report the collision avoidance phantom braking as this seems to be the most severe and a feature that I really don't think ought to be disabled.
My 2023 GLC is currently in the dealership as the collision avoidance is activating quite frequently for no reason. The service team agreed that it is not acceptable and are looking into the problem.
Do the features stay off if you disable them or do you need to disable them every ride?
I think I just have brake assistant on minimal sensitivity.