MB Brake Assist Plus Video

[Twitch]

...and this is what happened when this system was put to the test.

Mercedes Brake Assist Plus

The theory is while laying on the brakes, if your reaction time is a little slow or your depth perception is a little too wonky, the car (with the assistance of constant radar sweeps in the front) will make sure the right amount of braking is applied. It’s not going to brake for you, per se, but it’ll help make sure that if you want to brake you’ll be a lot less likely to hit the car in front of you—75% less likely according to Mercedes test results.

After watching that video, here's some explanation

Originally Posted by eMercedesBenz

Remember those pics of an all Mercedes S-Class pile up that we reported on a while ago? The story was that the vehicles’ Brake Assist PLUS systems failed during a demo for a German television station. The result should’ve been a PR nightmare for Mercedes Benz, which has remained steadfastly quiet on the embarrassing event.

eMercedesBenz is reporting via Autobild that Mercedes Benz had warned Michael Spect, a journalist covering the story, that the building’s metal structure would interfere with the Brake Assist PLUS systems. Spect decided to go ahead with the demonstration and brake the cars manually to simulate the system’s effect. Mercedes people on hand allowed it and boards were placed in the path of the cars to indicate at what point the drivers should brake, but apparently the S-Class suspension is so supple the drivers never felt the boards and proceeded to plow into one another.

What’s the result of all this deception? One fired journalist, a bunch of nervous Mercedes Benz employees who allowed the test to be simulated and a somewhat vindicated piece of brake assist technology, although we still wouldn’t trust the Brake Assist PLUS system inside a metal hall filled with fog.

Here's the full lenght video(21 minutes), it's all in German http://download.stern.de/_stream/NEBELCRASH_DSL.wmv

Translation (can anyone confirm this translation?)

I watched the whole report, since I am a native German speaker. The whole test was a sham because Distronic doesn't work in the test center, because of metallic interference. The MB and Autobild testers were basically doing a big charade for SternTV, claiming that the warning worked when in fact the board on the floor was acting as a mechanical cue for the driver to break. Very embarassing for DCX. The interview following the video was with a rep of DCX, who was getting grilled about the disingenuousness of the whole thing. he admitted that DCX screwed up, he apologized, and claimed that it was "dumb". AutoBild refused to participate in the studio interview or do a conference link, because they are presumably embarassed at being in cahoots with DCX (it was their test driver). Poor DCX guy did his best apologizing, and assuring people that Distronic works in real world conditions on the road, i.e. not in the test hall. Over 800 journalists and German testing agencies like TueV had confirmed DCX claims with tests, he claimed.

[mattlikespeople]

so basically, they effed up big time... perhaps a dry run of the demo should've been tested with out the cameras and fog to check the system out :banghead: :banghead: :loser1:

[OmidGC]

Now that is depressing. I heard they were looking to remove the designer from staff right?