5 ms·

I have a Mercedes Benz with adaptive cruise control, and was driving on the highway this weekend in a snowstorm. At one point, it basically gave up. It gave m

I have a Mercedes Benz with adaptive cruise control, and was driving on the highway this weekend in a snowstorm. At one point, it basically gave up. It gave me an error message to the effect of "you're on your own now." It is a challenge for a human, I feel for the algorithm folks trying to test the obscured vision.

cakes 11y ago
How did the car alert you that you were on your own (I don't own a Mercedes)? I'm curious as to how it indicates to you a rather important message about your immediate driving situation.
- krisroadruck 11y ago
  I don't have a Mercedes but my Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk has this same functionality and I did a cross country trip through northern america for the holidays. On mine at least it says something like "Sensor obscured, adaptive cruise control/lane keeping disabled. Please wipe off sensors." as well as making an audible ding to alert me to the message in my dash display.
- freehunter 11y ago
  I don't own a Mercedes and I don't know how the car alerts you, but all that's really required in this situation is a ding and a message on the dash that says "Cruise control disabled" and then it turns off cruise control.
- cschmidt 11y ago
  It makes the steering wheel shake or shudder, in a way that (to me at least) is meant to feel like hitting rumble strips at the side of the road. I think it probably dinged as well. It also turned off the cruise control, so I started losing speed. And there was an error message on the dashboard. So in all, I was well informed.
Yeroc 11y ago
Woah, you drive with your cruise control on in bad weather conditions like that? I was always trained to never, ever use cruise control in adverse weather conditions. Without having your foot on the accelerator to be able to quickly react to a skid or whatever just seems insane...
- jonknee 11y ago
  Well the car would automatically take care of the skid. It's not cruise control like you're thinking of (it's radar based) and like any other modern MB it has advanced traction control. It even bowed out when it couldn't perform optimally. Sounds fine to me!
- ddingus 11y ago
  Simple cruise systems only monitored speed and would throttle the engine to maintain the target speed. When a loss of traction happens, the proper response is usually letting up on the throttle so traction can be regained. These old, simple systems would apply more throttle insuring a mere slip turns into an epic spinoff event. Secondly, when driving in spotty traction conditions, it is good to use a lower numbered gear and a safe speed combined. That same loss of traction event can result in a very rapid spin of the tires due to the higher gears and torque combining to produce a rapid increase in tire spin rate when not constrained by the weight of the car and traction. This can happen before a human can respond. The higher gear puts the engine at a higher rpm and closer to it's natural unconstrained speed, which diminished both the event and it's impact considerably. The human experiences momentary chatter as the grip of the tire varies, but does not experience runaway spin and the abrupt loss of control it brings. I would think an automated car could be programmed with this all in mind and do rather well. An awful lot of humans could use this kind of data programmed in as well. :)

cakes 11y ago

How did the car alert you that you were on your own (I don't own a Mercedes)? I'm curious as to how it indicates to you a rather important message about your immediate driving situation.

krisroadruck 11y ago
I don't have a Mercedes but my Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk has this same functionality and I did a cross country trip through northern america for the holidays. On mine at least it says something like "Sensor obscured, adaptive cruise control/lane keeping disabled. Please wipe off sensors." as well as making an audible ding to alert me to the message in my dash display.
freehunter 11y ago
I don't own a Mercedes and I don't know how the car alerts you, but all that's really required in this situation is a ding and a message on the dash that says "Cruise control disabled" and then it turns off cruise control.
cschmidt 11y ago
It makes the steering wheel shake or shudder, in a way that (to me at least) is meant to feel like hitting rumble strips at the side of the road. I think it probably dinged as well. It also turned off the cruise control, so I started losing speed. And there was an error message on the dashboard. So in all, I was well informed.

Yeroc 11y ago

Woah, you drive with your cruise control on in bad weather conditions like that? I was always trained to never, ever use cruise control in adverse weather conditions. Without having your foot on the accelerator to be able to quickly react to a skid or whatever just seems insane...

jonknee 11y ago
Well the car would automatically take care of the skid. It's not cruise control like you're thinking of (it's radar based) and like any other modern MB it has advanced traction control. It even bowed out when it couldn't perform optimally. Sounds fine to me!
ddingus 11y ago
Simple cruise systems only monitored speed and would throttle the engine to maintain the target speed. When a loss of traction happens, the proper response is usually letting up on the throttle so traction can be regained. These old, simple systems would apply more throttle insuring a mere slip turns into an epic spinoff event. Secondly, when driving in spotty traction conditions, it is good to use a lower numbered gear and a safe speed combined. That same loss of traction event can result in a very rapid spin of the tires due to the higher gears and torque combining to produce a rapid increase in tire spin rate when not constrained by the weight of the car and traction. This can happen before a human can respond. The higher gear puts the engine at a higher rpm and closer to it's natural unconstrained speed, which diminished both the event and it's impact considerably. The human experiences momentary chatter as the grip of the tire varies, but does not experience runaway spin and the abrupt loss of control it brings. I would think an automated car could be programmed with this all in mind and do rather well. An awful lot of humans could use this kind of data programmed in as well. :)