Distronic

Over 40,000 DISTRONIC Proximity Cruise Control Systems in Use Worldwide
Stuttgart, 02/25/2003 - DISTRONIC proximity cruise control now contributes to safe, comfortable and stress-free driving in five Mercedes-Benz models. The high-performance assistance system, which went into series production at the end of 1998, has proven its worth in over 40,000 Mercedes passenger cars worldwide. As such, Mercedes-Benz is the world’s largest provider of automatic proximity cruise control systems. DISTRONIC is available for the CLK, E, S, CL and SL Classes as optional equipment. The system uses a radar sensor located behind the radiator grille to maintain a constant distance from the vehicle in front. As a result, DISTRONIC makes driving on roads with a great deal of traffic more comfortable, less stressful and more relaxing. Surveys conducted by Daimler Research show that driver reaction times are up to 40 percent faster when DISTRONIC is used than without it.
text and pics Daimler AG

Distronic cruise control simply let's you set the desired speed and the distance to the car in front.

With no car in front of you, it attains the regulated speed.

Green-red distance indicator

Some drivers switch it off in very dense traffic since others cut into the space kept by Distronic... Distronic keeps a distance of a minimum of 1 to a max of 2 seconds. But others use it particularly in dense traffic since it measures the distance to preceding cars more precisely than a driver can estimate it.



Distronic
debuts on the model year 2007 M-Class, R-Class and GL.
Distronic stalk Distronic EPCnet info for GL
Distronic is option code 219, starting October 2006.
Distronic was discontinued with model year 2009.

Recommended Distronic Installer: MBenzNL
"retrofitting distronic into a ML/GL/R class is a "walk-in-the-park" compared to some of the other MB models and is something we have done many times already...the tough part - however - is version coding as mercedes benz does not allow their dealerships to add distronic to the data card which makes getting the required code strings difficult.

We do a lot of distronic retrofits for several mercedes dealerships (in germany, the netherlands and the US).

greetingz, ..MBenzNL.com...MBenzNL.com.."

Distronic Plus
debuts on the new S-Class and CL for model year 2007 with option code 233. In model year 2008 Blind Spot Assist and Parking Guidance is added.



2009 S-Class improvements
Mercedes refined their radar technology even further. Situations potentially leading to an accident are recognised by two short-range radar sensors behind the front bumper (80-degree scanning angle), which have a range of around 30 metres, and a long-range radar sensor in the radiator grille. Mercedes-Benz has improved the performance of these sensors even further. In the 2009 S-Class, the system uses a newly developed long-range radar sensor with a range of 200 rather then the previous 150 metres. This sensor now also allows mid-range detection, monitoring the area up to 60 metres ahead of the car with a scanning angle of 60 degrees. This new technology enables the road ahead to be monitored even more precisely, with better detection of dynamic processes such as a sudden lane-change by a vehicle ahead.

Bosch's third generation long range radar (LRR3) system
The Bosch LRR3 radar sensor is considerably more efficient than its predecessor model, the LRR2. Its sensing range now stretches from 0.5 to 250 meters, instead of the 2 to 200 meters to date. At 30 degrees, the sensor beam width is twice that of the previous version. Automakers can now also have the field of view designed to specification.

The new radar sensor generation is robust in more ways than one. On the one hand, the Bosch experts use modified modulation processes, thus achieving a high level of detection reliability and considerably better interference immunity during signal evaluation. On the other hand, they have succeeded in achieving the large sensing range without using any moving parts at all. The sensor therefore works reliably and wear-free - optimum conditions for use in commercial vehicles. The detection field of the LRR 3 senses up to 32 objects simultaneously - both vehicles and standing objects -, can classify them as relevant for ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control) or PSS (Predictive Safety Systems, e.g. PreSafe), and react accordingly. And it does so with extreme precision in terms of distance, velocity, and angles to the objects.

The radar sensor works in the approved frequency band between 76 and 77 gigahertz. Bosch is the first system manufacturer worldwide to use silicon-germanium technology in its radar's front end. On the one hand, this ensures superior sensor quality, even for large production volumes. On the other hand, this technology provides considerable cost advantages. It opens up new applications and creates the conditions for high production quantities.

The first series production of the LRR3 long-range radar sensor is planned for the beginning of 2009. Bosch engineers are already working on further series production projects. One of these is a particularly interesting technical solution for the Bosch automatic emergency braking system Predictive Emergency Braking. In this solution, the engineers combine the LRR3 evaluation signals with the signals from a video camera to detect the risk of a rear-end collision and to minimize the consequences of an accident by triggering a very safe, automatic emergency braking process via the ESP® electronic stability program.

"Radar on Chip for Cars" (RoCC) at 79 GHz
Also using Infineon's SiGe chips, Continental developed the first demonstrator of a short-range radar system at 79 GHz. Short-range automotive radar sensors in use today use ultra-wide band technology at 24 GHz. This frequency, however, is licensed in Europe only up until the year 2013. The RoCC project aims to convert the system to the frequency range already released by the European Union of 79 GHz, and deliver systems that use these higher-frequency sensors at a cost that does not exceed today's 24-GHz systems. This presents a significant challenge to semiconductor technology, sensor design technology and in-vehicle integration that can only be tackled by a joint research project involving some of the most important companies in the automotive industry and their suppliers. The future "Radar on Chip for Cars" sensors are highly integrated and cost-optimized and work in the frequency range of 76 to 81 GHz.
May 28, 2009

Resources:



Future:

Real time inter-vehicle communication to further extend the driver's horizon. Developed at Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America in Palo Alto (US version). The developers believe this is more cost effective than Distronic on the hardware side "just plug the antenna into the cars' bus" and will extend the range to around 600 feet per hop. Multi-hops may reach considerably further, also around curves and over crests. Authentication, priority, adoption etc to be worked out.

car-to-car communication

speedtronic

telematics



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