Can you have ordinary cruise when you have distronic plus?

[C43AMG]

I wont buy a car now unless it's got Distronic +

 

[Matt1e]

and airports

Airports 3-6 mile radius too...as on the M6 near Manchester airport etc.

Mercedes apparently use the same frequencies (must be the best ones for aviation and merc !!).

Took me ages thinking the average speed area there had a blocker on it then one day the restrictions were gone and it went off at exactly the same place, my son looked it up and found the airport area affected it, as it gets overloaded with signals so de-activates for safety !

There is a section of the M11 for example between Duxford and New Market when the cars Radar gets deactivated.

Here is an extract from the handbook:

Vehicles with COMAND and navigation system*: the radar sensor system is deactivated automatically near radio telescope facilities. If Distronic Plus*, Park Assist*, Park Guidance*, Blind Spot Assist* or PRE-SAFE® Brake* are activated at this point, a corresponding warning will appear in the multi-function display to tell you that the radar sensor system is being switched off. BAS PLUS* is also no longer available. If the deactivation does not occur automatically, you must deactivate the radar sensor system using the on-board computer

United Kingdom
Cambridge
52°09'59" N, 00°02'20" E
9 km
Darnhall
53°09'22" N, 02°32'03" W
5 km
Jodrell Bank
53°14'10" N, 02°18'26" W
9 km
Knockin
52°47'24" N, 02°59'45" W
5 km
Pickmere
53°17'18" N, 02°26'38" W
5 km

 

[st13phil]

I do love Distronic+ on my CL, but there are a few sections on UK roads where you cant use the Radar so it deactivates the entire system! Highly frustrating especially as they are all in avg. speed sections of road. It would be nice to have "normal" cruise as a fall back

I agree with the "It would be nice to have "normal" cruise as a fall back" sentiment, but at least the speed limiter function still works (I think?).

My guess is that MB chose to totally disable cruise if the radar system isn't working for "safety reasons". In reality, it's for their own protection as in the absence of radar detection the cruise speed would be maintained and some f**ktard would plough into the back of a slower moving vehicle and sue them

 

[AndyRan]

I agree with the "It would be nice to have "normal" cruise as a fall back" sentiment, but at least the speed limiter function still works (I think?).

My guess is that MB chose to totally disable cruise if the radar system isn't working for "safety reasons". In reality, it's for their own protection as in the absence of radar detection the cruise speed would be maintained and some f**ktard would plough into the back of a slower moving vehicle and sue them

Yep I totally agree with you on that statement!

Never thought about trying the speed limiter set to the required speed! Good shout

 

[AndyRan]

Airports 3-6 mile radius too...as on the M6 near Manchester airport etc.

Mercedes apparently use the same frequencies (must be the best ones for aviation and merc !!).

Took me ages thinking the average speed area there had a blocker on it then one day the restrictions were gone and it went off at exactly the same place, my son looked it up and found the airport area affected it, as it gets overloaded with signals so de-activates for safety !

I believe the system uses the K-Band frequency - Also used by a lot of the older speed guns the police had. if you have an old radar detector it would also stop the Distronic working

Its not all airports however, it works perfectly passed both Gatwick and Heathrow and also the local one to me London Ashford Airport.

 

[PobodY]

I wonder if they've had some incident. - The older distronic doesn't deactivate near Manchester airport; in fact about the only time it turns its self off is if the traffic speed drops below ~20mph.

Interestingly, it wasn't until I bought the CLK that I could understand why the radar detector in the Nissan sometimes went haywire around Mercedes.