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Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

mercedesbenzofnatick.com

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Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#151

Post by gambiting »

megaremote wrote: post #120
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve taken up wearing earplugs while driving. I also work in a noisy environment, and it occurs to me that the road and engine and wind noise is probably loud enough to have a negative impact on hearing over time. Less so in newer cars, but both mine are over 10yo. Also, in the event of a collision I’m protected.

Fantastic, someone driving a deadly vehicle responsible for 40,000 deaths every single year, and now they can't even hear anything either. Hey, but as long as you are ok, right?

You do realize that deaf people can drive legally, yeah?

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#152

Post by jesusthatsgreat »

ChickeNES wrote: post #21
taylorlapeyre wrote: post #4

I lost most of my hearing in my left ear in a head-on collision with a drunk driver. No other injuries. The audiologist said that my eardrum was in the kind of state you usually only see in battlefields from exposure to large explosions. People are always surprised when I tell them this was my only injury, and as a result I've always wondered how common this type of injury is with vehicle collisions. This is the firs…

There was a blogpost I read a few years back written by someone who damaged their hearing after dropping a porcelain toilet lid. They actually ran some back-of-the-envelope calculations to estimate the decibel level, I recall it being shockingly high.

What makes it worse is that quite a few toilet lids are self closing / soft closing these days. So if you get used to it, you start trusting the lid to close itself and take your hand from underneath the lid while it's still at a height. So it's easy to slam the lid down accidentally.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#153

Post by eitland »

incidentnormal wrote: post #137
eitland wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I understand correctly some of the most common painkillers are steroids. I might have seen Ibuprofen mentioned explicitly in relation with hearing loss. Can anyone confirm or deny if taking Ibuprofen could help if one is stuck without a doctor?

Well, ibuprofen is certainly not a steroid - it is an NSAID (non-steroidal anti inflammatory drug)

Aha, thanks for clearing up : )

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#154

Post by skgoa »

nodesocket wrote: post #130
TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve taken up wearing earplugs while driving. I also work in a noisy environment, and it occurs to me that the road and engine and wind noise is probably loud enough to have a negative impact on hearing over time. Less so in newer cars, but both mine are over 10yo. Also, in the event of a collision I’m protected.

Wow, always putting earplugs in when you drive. Don't get me wrong, it is smart, just I lack the discipline to do it every time.

When you drive a truly noisy car or motorcycle, you will remember to do it.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#155

Post by skgoa »

danellis wrote: post #147
Swizec wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren’t airbags essentially explosions going off in your face? Fancy car like mercedes probably has 10+ of them going off around you Especially the one in the door right next to your head could be bad for your ears I imagine ... Never thought of that before. Thanks for bringing it up

Exploding into a bag, though, so isn't most of the energy absorbed by the expansion of the bag?

Yes, but people regularly get burns and light blunt trauma from airbags. The US versions of many cars even have slightly weaker airbags, because many people don't wear seatbelts and might be killed by a full-strength airbag.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#156

Post by skgoa »

hirundo wrote: post #71

I'm guessing an engineer named it the German equivalent of "pre-crash" sound, then someone in marketing decided that "pre-safe" sounds better. It may be better to call it "foreplay" sound, since if you ever hear it you're probably screwed.

You are 99% correct. We use the english terms for this here in Germany, too. Everyone in the industry used to literally call this feature and others like it "pre-crash".

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#157

Post by skgoa »

billfruit wrote: post #99
TylerE wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different buyer preferences. Different needs. Of course, it helps that most low-powered cars sold in the EU will have manual trans, where all US MBs are autos... Also, US buyers will run the AC a lot more, and AC eats a lot of power...potentially as much as 15-20HP... that's a lot more noticeable with a tiny engine.

Still I doubt if it is actually justified, considering in India a similar size car is perfectly serving its purpose with a 60 to 70 HP engine.

Tell that to the people who won't buy that car.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#158

Post by grogenaut »

hbosch wrote: post #135

I just want to say that this is exactly the type of thoughtfulness, design, engineering and research that justifies the price difference in something like a Mercedes and something like a Honda. There are so many small triumphs like this in class-leading, high-end vehicle manufacturers that go unnoticed and unsung and allow people with 2019 Accords to say things like "why would I pay $45,000 for that when I get better…

This is super common with Mercedes. They put a lot of whiz bang features into their eclass. Some, Like night vision camera heads up diaplay, don't take off, others trickle down and are or will be everywhere now like side curtain airbags or Lane keeping assist.

If you flip it on its head though, why is Mercedes only protecting people who pays 3-10x the price for their car for what in this case is just a software fix? Same with other cars and pre-collision breaking (vs a warning noise).

But you do need some features to justify that price tag.

One might liken it to how drug companies are charging $1M+ for new treatments and slowly cutting the cost as they walk the economic supply demand curve.

Re: Mercedes-Benz pre-safe sound

#160

Post by kemitchell »

hbosch wrote: post #135

I just want to say that this is exactly the type of thoughtfulness, design, engineering and research that justifies the price difference in something like a Mercedes and something like a Honda. There are so many small triumphs like this in class-leading, high-end vehicle manufacturers that go unnoticed and unsung and allow people with 2019 Accords to say things like "why would I pay $45,000 for that when I get better…

How about the difference in long-term cost of ownership, serviceability, and overall reliability?

It's certainly one kind of car person that wants the latest and greatest nearly all the time. Some like to patronize particular auto makers, like fashionistas patronize fashion houses. It's quite another, equally valid kind of car person to take used examples of far simpler, utterly reliable cars and add suspension, brakes, forced induction, tuning, and so on far beyond what any manufacturer fits on any mass-market vehicle. They patronize component makers, often race- or restoration- oriented.

As for the non-enthusiasts, if you plan to lease a vehicle or trade it in every few years like clockwork, the eventual cost of added complexity might never affect you, apart from resale value. But the virtue of combining good mechanical QA with simplicity and serviceability is also much unsung, and cheaper, not more expensive.

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