Appearantly, things don't go wrong only for the Germans.

I am very impressed by what looks to me an average speed for a front end crash.

Glad my fathers Ford has Volvo underpinnings.
 
That Volvo crash looks very similar to the one where the old lady in the Buick rear-ended my Disco, with a similar outcome. No braking action whatsoever

The stickers on the car say 35kph.

Judging by the video it takes 0.52s to clear all 4628mm of a new S60 (that's what it is, right?) which works out to 32kph. One frame is 0.04s, so +/-1 frame is 29.7 to 34.7 kph.
Assuming the distance between the yellow lines is equal it took the same amount of time for both line-to-line intervals, no braking occurred.

Mr. May, I didn't know you posted here!
 
So they found a way to stop uk soccer mon tailgating every possible moving object on the highway but making them stop dead ?????
 
The story about the failed german demonstration is quite interesting.

Mercedes invited a car journalist (I believe from Autobild) and a TV crew from Stern TV to demonstrate their system. But after a couple of tests they figured out that the radar-system wouldn't work inside a building.

Instead of canceling the thing they told the journalist that they would fake the test and he should drive to prove it's working. Then they put a simple wooden plank on the testtrack and the driver should then brake hard once he feels that he's driven over the plank and then tell the TV guys that the car stopped itself.

Well we saw the outcome, he braked too late and crashed. But he still insisted, that the car braked itself, just a little bit zu late. Which of course was a lie.

Why do we now this? Because the TV crew wired the car before the test and recorded the hole conversation between the Merc guys and the journalist over the microphones. They showed the footage and played the recordings on the TV show and some Merc exec had to explain it :)

I found the hole thing on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fQCwDiO3hc
 
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Back on Volvo, according to a newspaper the battery was drained and that caused the brake-system to deactivate. When they recharged the battery the system simply wasn't on.
 
Mercedes invited a car journalist (I believe from Autobild) and a TV crew from Stern TV to demonstrate their system. But after a couple of tests they figured out that the radar-system wouldn't work inside a building.

So in other words, it doesn't work in a tunnel either. Niiiiice.
 
So in other words, it doesn't work in a tunnel either. Niiiiice.

That was brought up in the video as well and the Mercedes representative said that it has been tested in tunnels and should work in tunnels without a problem. The malfunction was supposed to be caused by the metal in the floor and especially in the thick wall on the end of the hall, which is designed to withstand all the crash tests.
 
Which means it won't work in tunnels or in places like Lower Grand Street in Los Angeles, where there is lots of buried metal under the pavement and an enormously thick wall at each end.

2733624641_9fbb12aace.jpg
 
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Which means it won't work in tunnels or in places like Lower Grand Street in Los Angeles, where there is lots of buried metal under the pavement and an enormously thick wall at each end.

2733624641_9fbb12aace.jpg
So it might have trouble in NYC with the buildings and all the underground AND elevated trains, which require a metric ass load of metal? Wow what a great system...
 
That was brought up in the video as well and the Mercedes representative said that it has been tested in tunnels and should work in tunnels without a problem. The malfunction was supposed to be caused by the metal in the floor and especially in the thick wall on the end of the hall, which is designed to withstand all the crash tests.

Should work?

That is confidence inspiring.
 
Simple solution!

original_eyes.jpg

PerfectFeet.jpg


Use them.
 
At the same time??? Come on now! :p
 
Wouldnt be any sport if they put a human in there :p
 
The braking system is one place where I do not want any unnecessary convenience technology having any sort of control, especially a system that's confused by building or tunnels. Even ABS worries me now. My Land Rover back home had (key word there) ABS and it put me in a bad situation I never should have been in. I was coasting up to a stop sign and when I pressed the brake pedal the ABS went mad for no reason whatsoever. It was over-reacting so much that even with the pedal to the floor it was like the brakes were barely on. I finally somehow managed to stop in the middle of the intersection and was lucky there was nothing coming the other way. At the time I shrugged it off as the work of Mr. Lucas. Then about a week later it happened again. As soon as I got home I deactivated the system. I'd rather get in an accident knowing I couldn't stop well enough than the car not letting me stop at all.
 
The braking system is one place where I do not want any unnecessary convenience technology having any sort of control, especially a system that's confused by building or tunnels. Even ABS worries me now. My Land Rover back home had (key word there) ABS and it put me in a bad situation I never should have been in. I was coasting up to a stop sign and when I pressed the brake pedal the ABS went mad for no reason whatsoever. It was over-reacting so much that even with the pedal to the floor it was like the brakes were barely on. I finally somehow managed to stop in the middle of the intersection and was lucky there was nothing coming the other way. At the time I shrugged it off as the work of Mr. Lucas. Then about a week later it happened again. As soon as I got home I deactivated the system. I'd rather get in an accident knowing I couldn't stop well enough than the car not letting me stop at all.

Something similar happened to me in my parents' Camry. I had to brake somewhat hard and the ABS decided to interfere even though the tires weren't even squealing. Ended up overpower the ABS with my foot to push the pedal further and activate normal brakes. It's not even a hybrid or anything so its not like regenerative braking would be the culprit.

In my car ABS actually lets me lock the tires up for a split second before interfering
 
"Brake", "break".... Obviously just a babelfish mistranslation in the operating manual...

Clearly! "When within an unsafe distance of a car ahead, the car will automatically break"
 
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