From another board, video link below (long but shows disaster 2 mins in)
http://www.stern.de/tv/sterntv/549835.html?nv=sb
"The entire story gets a lot of attention in the german net and I will summarize what I have understood so far:
DC wanted to demonstrate the advantages of their new Distronic system in a REAL (hehe) test covered by the german
TV show "Stern-TV" (not a car related show, just reporting about some tech stuff now and then).
So they arranged the following scenario in their own safety test building (normally used for crash tests):
A new Distronic equipped S class should approach some parking cars unvisible due to artificial fog with a speed of 55 km/h. In theory the Distronic due to its radar technology would identify the obstacles (cars) although not visible for the S class's driver (fog) early enough to give him an acoustic warning. The driver would then engage the break, which automatically would initiate an emergency break assisted by the BreakAssist system.
The problem: DC engineers figured out beforehand that the radar system would not work properly in the building due to reflecting metal parts of the building (that's at least the story they told after the "incident").
Therefore the entire test was FAKED (without telling the TV show's management in advance): they placed a wooden plank on the floor as an indicator for the driver when to engage the break - really high tech
In order to increase the credibility of the test, a "neutral" driver was chosen (not a DC employee). And yes guess where they found an "indpendent" driver being ready to get corrupted: it was the head reporter of the german car magazine "Autobild" (certainly in exchange of a nice exclusive story like "I have been the first to test the Distronic under REAL conditions and it's a blast..")
Now let the fun begin: in the first try the driver was either too silly to engage the break pedal early enough (perhaps he could not spot the wooden plank) or they have been messing up in calculating the appropriate distance plank/obstacle or the breaks did not work well (driver was claiming the latter after the test) - so he just crashed into the other car (the TV team taking record of the scene of course ).
After the crash the driver was discussing with some DC engineers what went wrong and how to avoid a crash in a second test. Unfortunately the driver and the engineers forgot that the microphones of the TV team still had been turned on.......A member of the TV team asked whether he could participate in a second test as a passenger (courageous guy )....the DC engineer agreed only to withdraw his approval a minute later after the driver reminded him that the witness from the TV team would realize that there would be no acoustic warning and that he would engage the break pedal just at the position of the wooden plank.....STILL ON AIR....LOL....
A second and third test was conducted by the Autobild reporter (this time not crashing the car) and afterwords the TV crew confronted the driver and the DC engineers with their findings: holy cow ! their faces changed colors quicker than any F1 gearbox could change gears
This embarassment is unparalelled !
To top the crazyness the Autobild-reporter indeed used the story in the latest Autobild-issue to praise the value of the Distronic system ! - the guy has been fired by Autobild today....
The entire story is so unbelievable...if it would have been a Monty Python movie sketch I would have cramped myself on the floor laughing, but as it is just another example of how to destroy the rest of the credibility of car makers' marketing departments and car magazine's "independence" there is some bitter taste to this story.
It will be very interesting to see how DC and Autobild will try to recover credibility (maybe DC offers a wooden plank option for their S class in the future ) "
But it is a bit of a laugh
http://www.stern.de/tv/sterntv/549835.html?nv=sb
"The entire story gets a lot of attention in the german net and I will summarize what I have understood so far:
DC wanted to demonstrate the advantages of their new Distronic system in a REAL (hehe) test covered by the german
TV show "Stern-TV" (not a car related show, just reporting about some tech stuff now and then).
So they arranged the following scenario in their own safety test building (normally used for crash tests):
A new Distronic equipped S class should approach some parking cars unvisible due to artificial fog with a speed of 55 km/h. In theory the Distronic due to its radar technology would identify the obstacles (cars) although not visible for the S class's driver (fog) early enough to give him an acoustic warning. The driver would then engage the break, which automatically would initiate an emergency break assisted by the BreakAssist system.
The problem: DC engineers figured out beforehand that the radar system would not work properly in the building due to reflecting metal parts of the building (that's at least the story they told after the "incident").
Therefore the entire test was FAKED (without telling the TV show's management in advance): they placed a wooden plank on the floor as an indicator for the driver when to engage the break - really high tech
In order to increase the credibility of the test, a "neutral" driver was chosen (not a DC employee). And yes guess where they found an "indpendent" driver being ready to get corrupted: it was the head reporter of the german car magazine "Autobild" (certainly in exchange of a nice exclusive story like "I have been the first to test the Distronic under REAL conditions and it's a blast..")
Now let the fun begin: in the first try the driver was either too silly to engage the break pedal early enough (perhaps he could not spot the wooden plank) or they have been messing up in calculating the appropriate distance plank/obstacle or the breaks did not work well (driver was claiming the latter after the test) - so he just crashed into the other car (the TV team taking record of the scene of course ).
After the crash the driver was discussing with some DC engineers what went wrong and how to avoid a crash in a second test. Unfortunately the driver and the engineers forgot that the microphones of the TV team still had been turned on.......A member of the TV team asked whether he could participate in a second test as a passenger (courageous guy )....the DC engineer agreed only to withdraw his approval a minute later after the driver reminded him that the witness from the TV team would realize that there would be no acoustic warning and that he would engage the break pedal just at the position of the wooden plank.....STILL ON AIR....LOL....
A second and third test was conducted by the Autobild reporter (this time not crashing the car) and afterwords the TV crew confronted the driver and the DC engineers with their findings: holy cow ! their faces changed colors quicker than any F1 gearbox could change gears
This embarassment is unparalelled !
To top the crazyness the Autobild-reporter indeed used the story in the latest Autobild-issue to praise the value of the Distronic system ! - the guy has been fired by Autobild today....
The entire story is so unbelievable...if it would have been a Monty Python movie sketch I would have cramped myself on the floor laughing, but as it is just another example of how to destroy the rest of the credibility of car makers' marketing departments and car magazine's "independence" there is some bitter taste to this story.
It will be very interesting to see how DC and Autobild will try to recover credibility (maybe DC offers a wooden plank option for their S class in the future ) "
But it is a bit of a laugh
.
