zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Tech
/
Mercedes-Benz Cars Will Warn Each Other About Potholes, Shun Lesser Vehicles
Mercedes-Benz Cars Will Warn Each Other About Potholes, Shun Lesser Vehicles-April 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:10:28

Image for article titled Mercedes-Benz Cars Will Warn Each Other About Potholes, Shun Lesser Vehicles

Cars of the future are going to be chatty as hell. And it’s not like they don’t already communicate in little ways, sending data to Google Maps, Waze and the like to inform each other (and us dumb meat sacks) of traffic patterns, obstructions and other annoyances. Things are only going to continue in that direction — especially as cars need each other more and us, less. I imagine one day they’ll say mean things about us behind our backs in their own secret language.

But that’s in the far off future. In the much more immediate future, Mercedes-Benz is going to use this technology so that its products can warn each other about potholes. A new feature coming to the company’s Car-to-X suite will allow new C-Class, S-Class and models to register potholes and speed bumps via their suspension control units, then input that data into the cloud where it’ll be used to alert Mercedes drivers in the vicinity. Mercedes vehicles built from 2016 onward will relay these warnings about 10 seconds before they’re due to reach the hazard in question.

This isn’t a groundbreaking new idea — manufacturers and OEMs have been , regularly bringing up potholes as one of the frustrations of modern driving that vehicle-to-vehicle communication could mitigate. Still, nobody’s really put it into practice yet, and perhaps to some degree that’s down to data privacy concerns.

Image for article titled Mercedes-Benz Cars Will Warn Each Other About Potholes, Shun Lesser Vehicles

Security matters aside, you’d expect a company in Mercedes’ position to be all possessive and proprietary about this stuff, rather than sharing the data in a manner where it could benefit drivers of all vehicles. It’s a promising idea that could do a lot of good, but it’s crying out for an open platform.

Imagine if it was democratized? Making such data freely available could spare motorists flat tires, unnecessary repair bills and even the occasional accident. It would also save Mercedes owners money in another sense, because wouldn’t you know the company has the gall to charge for these alerts. From the :

In order to use the “Car-to-X” service, the customer must have a Mercedes me connect account and have activated the service. Only then are data registered in the vehicle, and the vehicle-related Car-to-X data are sent to the backend, where they are anonymised. The service is available free of charge for the first three years, and can then be renewed on payment of a fee. Mercedes-Benz drivers can easily activate or deactivate the service via the user account in the Mercedes me Portal or in the Mercedes me App. This is where they can also object to the transfer of data.

The system can already do more than alert drivers to potholes — it can also share knowledge of accidents, broken-down vehicles and conditions like fog and heavy rain. Honestly, most of the other bits of information relayed either strike me as obvious or not extremely useful. But I’d venture to guess few would complain to know about potholes in their path before they hit them. This is one of those rare examples of Good Tech coming to modern cars everyone should be able to get behind, in theory.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Tech
Biden’s First EV Charging Station Goes Online After $7.5 Billion In American EV Investments
Biden’s First EV Charging Station Goes Online After $7.5 Billion In American EV Investments
Despite in investments for the development of in the , not a single charging station had gone live thanks to — until now. The first EV charger paid for by Biden’s Bipartisan deal has come online in Ohio, according to , which marks the operational start of what the...
Apr 21, 2025
GM Says It's Dropping Apple CarPlay And Android Auto Because They're Unsafe (Update)
GM Says It's Dropping Apple CarPlay And Android Auto Because They're Unsafe (Update)
GM is still dealing with the fallout of its decision to drop Apple CarPlay and Android Auto in favor of developing its own in-house system. In the last eight months, the company has had to deal with while still maintaining its in-house system will be “.” Since neither of...
Apr 21, 2025
Danish Investors Dump Tesla Shares After Elon Musk Calls Strikes In Sweden 'Insane'
Danish Investors Dump Tesla Shares After Elon Musk Calls Strikes In Sweden 'Insane'
Danish pension fund PensionDanmark is dumping all of its stock and putting the U.S. EV maker on its exclusion list of the companies it chooses to invest in – or not. The fund is selling all of its shares due to Elon Musk’s refusal to enter into labor agreements...
Apr 21, 2025
Truck Fans Would Rather Wait For A Toyota Tacoma EV Than Buy A F-150 Lightning Or Cybertruck
Truck Fans Would Rather Wait For A Toyota Tacoma EV Than Buy A F-150 Lightning Or Cybertruck
fans are already cooling on despite more options on the market and news of upcoming models from the likes of Chevy and Ram. The and have yet to be released, while the has recently joined the and for sale in the U.S. And, yet, all of these current and...
Apr 21, 2025
Volkswagen EVs Can Now Power Your House For Two Days (Update)
Volkswagen EVs Can Now Power Your House For Two Days (Update)
Experts have said that one of the ways to speed up EV adoption is for them to support . The ability for owners to power their house off their car or from the grid is vital. Just nine EVs on the market currently support bidirectional charging, but now VW...
Apr 21, 2025
Costco Will Sell The Chevy Blazer EV At A Discount To Go With Your Rotisserie Chicken
Costco Will Sell The Chevy Blazer EV At A Discount To Go With Your Rotisserie Chicken
knows that you keep coming back for the and Kirkland brand, but you can now also buy a cheaper at your local warehouse. Chevy notified its dealers that members are eligible for a $1,000 rebate on the through January 2, according to . The discount is part of ,...
Apr 21, 2025
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved