Mercedes Crashing Demo Was Faked... But Not To Crash
from the so-they-say dept
Remember a couple of weeks ago, when we had that story about the demonstration of Mercedes' new radar braking system that failed, causing a 3-car pileup? At the time, Mercedes blamed the steel warehouse they were in. However, it appears there's a bit more to the story. C. Bronte writes in to point out a followup story where it's revealed that Mercedes is now claiming they knew ahead of time it wouldn't work, and had told the TV reporters exactly that -- but the reporters still wanted to film it in that environment. So, they had planned to fake the entire thing, using drivers who would hit the brakes at the appropriate time. The problem was that, due to the smoke machine, the drivers couldn't see the cars in front of them. They tried to use a block of wood on the ground to mark where the drivers should stop, but (Mercedes claims...) the suspension on the car made it so the drivers didn't notice running over the wood, leading to the pileup. So, it was still an accident, but not so much due to a technology failure (that was expected), but due to human error. Who knows how true this is, or how much is simply Mercedes trying to spin the story in a more positive manner, but apparently the journalist who set this up has been fired.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
LIES
That sounds like hogwash... Oh, wait! I guess the VP from Sony works for Mercedes now and has decided that most people don't know what a wreck is...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
journalist?
the journalist who set this up has been fired
That last line is unclear to me. If you're working for Mercedes, you're not really a journalist. Did you mean publicist, perhaps?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: journalist?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]