http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/ Engadget Comments for New Mercedes S-Class rocks Night View Assist http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 11:23AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 11:26AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 11:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/]]>Feb 2nd 2006 11:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 11:42AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 12:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 12:09PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 12:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/
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Germany realy know how to make cars :-)

Thomas]]>Feb 2nd 2006 12:30PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/
A reviewer had requested that they test this feature in a mock up to test its efficiveness and the video was leaked and shown on TV. The car launched itself through a tunnel and out through simulated fog on the otherside. THe system which is supposed to break before human reactions kick in failed, and the Merc hit a stationary old banger they used as the computer systems incentive to stop!

It was VERY FUNNY. Lets hope this is a damn good upgrade to the system I saw at the end of last year - or its not worth considering.

They also showed how people standing quite close to the car barely showed up on the LCD, which they reviewed to be far more of a distraction than any real benefit.

I wish I had recorded that TV show, it was priceless!]]>Feb 2nd 2006 12:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Apr 9th 2007 2:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 12:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/
Hmm, I wonder what would happen if a bunch of us stood by the roadside pointing remote controls at the merc drivers and mashing the buttons :)]]>Feb 2nd 2006 1:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/You mean Xenon HID Lamps?

I saw the new S-Class at the showroom a few weeks ago, at the top of the windshield above the rearview mirror you can see the camera and giant IR illuminator.

The LCD gauge is cool.

-- Elias]]>Feb 2nd 2006 1:19PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 1:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Aug 10th 2008 10:31AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 1:37PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 1:55PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 2:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 2:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 3:10PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 3:32PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 3:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 2nd 2006 4:38PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/
#12. Heat energy is IR and therefore the S-Class Night-View system will pick up "mafucking deers" - as you so eloquently put it.

What this system has over other systems is that it is active instead of passive. Passive sytems (BMW, Cadillac) simply read the temperature differences of objects in front of the car and return an image. They tend to produce lo-res images where "hot" objects are just white blobs on the screen. The disadvantage of passive systems is that they can't "see" cold objects.

The M-B active system floods the environment with IR which is reflected off of all objects regardless of their temperature. This enables you too "see" cold objects in the road as well such as rocks or fallen tree limbs. Also, the images rendered are of much higher resolution.

#6,13,20 To my understanding each S-Class "broadcasts" and reads IR of a unique frequency, so on-coming S-Classes don't "blind" each other.

#1 Night View is probably intended to be used as you would use a rearview mirror. You don't stare at it all the time, but you check it periodically to make sure you are aware of your driving environment.
]]>Feb 2nd 2006 4:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/
what i mean is - unless there's lasers generating the IR, then its some kind of wideband IR generator and you'll get spill over into other's readers more than likely....

if there are lasers making the IR, then how closely can you space the freqs?]]>Feb 2nd 2006 5:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/
My "dream" solution would involve a head tracking system so the HUD image stays on top of the real image no matter how you are sitting in the seat.]]>Feb 2nd 2006 8:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/
First, the "incident" regarding the new S crashing into an older one has been cleared up. The journalist was fired from the magazine - and it was a completely different system: Distronic, which didn't work because the test area was a completely enclosed metal building: in other words, something you would never see in real life.

Engineers said "it doesn't work here"; journalist said "go ahead anyway". Engineers relented for the sake of the TV cameras, places a plank on the floor so the journalist would stop in time to "simulate" the result. And whammo, journalist didn't feel it and so didn't brake in time. Fired for being dishonest; and I expect the engineers who let the test go on got fired too. This was NOT on BBC Top Gear.

In fact, Top Gear has NEVER tested the new S-class. The second incident was with Night View Assist (this system). And it was FIFTH Gear, not Top Gear.

The person said he couldn't see someone in front of him, outside the range of the normal headlamps, with this turned on, WHILE STATIONARY. Now, according to Mercedes, the IR lamps only turns on at around 10mph (but the IR receiver is on already), and so below that speed, the screen just shows what the headlamps are illuminating. So of course he couldn't see someone who was outside the range of his headlamps - while stationary. The IR doesn't come on til you get moving.

That's it, really. The systems all work. And while HUD would be really cool, has anyone ever seen a HUD covering the entire windscreen, with images at life size? :p I certainly haven't...]]>Feb 2nd 2006 8:43PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/
http://www.gulfstreamplaneview.com/]]>Feb 2nd 2006 9:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 3rd 2006 12:15AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/
What happens if another S-Class comes down the street? ITS IR light will flood the area, and both of their screens will be momentarily blinded.

If you're using it to drive (ie not looking up) and suddenly everything goes white, two S-Classes go down.... and thats a shame.]]>Feb 3rd 2006 9:02AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 3rd 2006 1:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/02/new-mercedes-s-class-rocks-night-view-assist/Feb 3rd 2006 4:37PM