Another Elchtest for DaimlerChrysler?

[Autobahn]

DaimlerChrysler wanted to show the Distronic and BAS Plus in the new S-Class (W221) to the viewers of German Stern TV.
They wanted to show their "vision of crashless driving" by setting up the following scenario:
- A traffic jam occurs in dense fog.
Therefore they set up a lane of cars in a hall and fogged it. The S-Class equipped with distronic and bas plus should drive towards these cars and stop automatically.

Look what happened  
(pictures from www.rtl.de - a German TV station)







Mercedes claims that there was too much iron in the hall. Tests have worked in fresh air without problems.

My question is: Why didn't they test it in the hall before they allowed TV cameras for gods sake - if this test is unrealistic why do it in front of TV cameras.

In the end you are better off, using common sense while driving than electronics. But this is a scenario where the intelligent systems could actually help. A traffic jam in dense fog is something a radar system can detect better than a human - but only if it works!

Shit happens, some crashed S-Classes  :)    

[thewizard16]

The systems are barely more special than the Pre Collision systems found on high end cars now, so I don't see what the big deal about debuting the technology is. Secondly, I kindof like Mercedes (though I doubt I'd ever buy one) but they have a bad history with electronics. They're always so worried about getting technology out before the Japanese (normally Lexus) that they rush it to production before working out the bugs, and the system doesn't work right, or it causes problems down the road. A few months later, or sometimes less, the Japanese (normally Lexus) will come out with a similar or nearly identical technology that they were developing at the same time or maybe even before, but had the patience to test and work out the bugs, and theirs works well. I've talked to enough Mercedes engineers to know that they don't test electronic things enough before production, and I'm not terribly surprised, because of most of the ones I've met, they're a rather arrogant group of people. Not the kind that would consider second guessing themselves.