A crazy Romanian driver tested Active Lane Keeping Assist on a Mercedes S-Class, sitting on the rear bench, while the car was going by over 100 km/h on a highway.
Autonomous driving is the dream of the future. But for some people, it is the reality of today.
Some months ago, in Germany, a driver tested the Active Lane Keeping Asssist in the new Mercedes S-Class from the driver’s seat.
To avoid car messages which ask you to put the hands on the steering wheel, otherwise the car will slow down until it will stop at standstill, the inventive driver connected a Coca-Cola can to the steering wheel.
So, the electronics “were cheated” and the car did not know that the driver took the hands off the steering wheel.
Few days ago, a happy Romanian owner of the new Mercedes S-Class made a similar test, but in a more insane way and in a very dangerous manner.
He took his car to the highway, seated himself on the rear bench, leaving his girlfriend in the seat of the front passenger and activated Active Lane Keeping Asssist.
At a speed of over 100 km/h, the car drove practically by itself in a crazy test of, let’s say, autonomous driving. His girlfriend was very shocked by this live autonomous test drive.
The Romanian Police is looking for the crazy driver, who could have caused a tragedy on the highway.
What is Lane Keeping Asssist?
Lane Keeping Asssist warns the driver by vibrations in the steering wheel, when the vehicle is wandering unintentionally out if its lane, thus helping to prevent accidents.
The system uses a camera on the inside of the windscreen, which films the road surface.
An electronic control unit is able to identify boundary lines in these images by reference to differences in contrast. The control unit also determines the position of the vehicle and is thus able to recognise, when the driver is leaving his lane. In contrast to conventional systems of this type, Lane Keeping Assist also analyses the driver’s activities and is thus able to recognise whether the vehicle is leaving its lane intentionally or unintentionally. Consequently, no warning is output when the driver accelerates prior to overtaking or pulling onto a motorway, when he brakes heavily or when he steers into a bend. The system outputs a warning earlier when the car passes over a continuous line than when it crosses a broken lane marking.
What is Active Lane Keeping Assist?
This system offer more and is even better than Lane Keeping Asssist. At speeds between 60 and 200 km/h, this system not only warns the drivers that they are inadvertently drifting out of the lane, but it can also actively prevent this situation from occurring by means of one-sided brake intervention via ESP.
The system intervenes automatically if the vehicle crosses the continuous road markings and in the case of a broken white line, if a collision might occur in the adjacent line. That way you always keep safely to the lane.
Compare with Lane Keeping Assist, the Active Lane Keeping Asssist features a radar system which records the activities of other road users.
A rear sensor monitors the traffic area behind your cars and warns of vehicles which are starting to overtake. The long range sensor keeps an eye on oncoming traffic and the short range sensor looks out for adjacent traffic as well as parking vehicles. A second camera detects when you start to make a lane change despite the adjacent lane being occupied.
