Three words: consumer protection laws.
There are markets where Mercedes can’t pull off this stunt, at least not as easy.
12 Likes
Ow! That is a painful racket. 
@VeronicaConnor Thanks for the gear box explanation. It fun to find out what other people know.
@smulder That’s bonkers. I wonder how many set of tires they got though on this shoot.
5 Likes
Didn’t Tesla do that too - or was it the range of the car? Then when the hurricane hit he gave it to everyone so they could get to safety?
4 Likes
Nobody said you should apply patches blindly.
5 Likes
At some point, there will need to be consumer protections about this. After one’s house, their car is the 2nd largest purchase. The fact more and more car companies are going to start to nickle and dime their users after the purchase is just going to grow. Not to mention their ability to shut down or even possibly recall cars that are over due on payments. 
Kinds sucks with new conveniences, they also became new controls.
8 Likes
My car is the same age, and I’ve expressed that sentiment many times. First I declined the aftermarket black box installation offers from my insurance company, and then it was nav systems. I plan to keep mine running as long as possible, because people are posting videos about how difficult it is to disable these services/devices without preventing the vehicle from operating at all. Also, I’m a fan of too many sci-fi shows where bad things happen to passengers in vehicles affected by bad software.
8 Likes
The reason I also keep an older car that has no electronics in the key/keyfob.
(Great for packing a key in my wetsuit, knowing that salt water will not corrode the electronics, 'cause there is none.)
3 Likes
From the perspective of the industry I know best (CNC controllers, mostly Fanuc), this is normal. When ordering a controller I selected from hundreds of options, from basics (# of axes, types of acceleration profiles, # of meters of tape storage, etc) to the more advanced (5-axis interpolation, nano-interpolation, etc.); from these options a specific hardware configuration is determined (# of processors, memory, etc). Some of these options cost multiple thousands of $… on a complex machine the options could cost 5x or more than the basic controller.
The controller that I received would be per my configuration. But it had all software functions installed, just disabled. If I needed to add a software function, I’d just order it for that specific machine. As long as the hardware supported the new function, it was a simple matter of flipping the correct bit(s) in the controller.
Over the years this “flipping the correct bits” went from something I could do, to a very secretive method done only by a Fanuc tech visiting the machine to type in secret codes while covering the keypad so as not to reveal the codes. One tech even insisted I step behind the controller so I couldn’t see the keypad! I believe the current methods tie the option to the specific controller serial#.
Indeed. Not that a Benz is likely in my future, but I drive like a little old man so wouldn’t need this option.
5 Likes
Don’t count on it in the US if Republicans keep attacking the CPSC.
2 Likes
Given the EQE is all electric, you won’t even get that.
Omg this. Mufflers (especially modern ones) are so good at their job it’s easy to forget that an engine works by way of thousands of explosions a minute. Even a Prius will sound like a race car with its muffler removed.
That being said, I’ll never forget the sound of hearing a top fuel dragster at WOT, though. That was an experience to behold. (And highly disrecommended without really good ear protection.)
4 Likes
Despite all the ear protection I wore to my first NHRA event, I could feel how loud it was!
4 Likes
You don’t have to be first.
1 Like
Part of that noise is throwing rods and obliterating superchargers, by design. 
Those engines are built so close to the edge of physics that they’re designed to fail right at the finish line, basically. There’s a saying in drag racing that if you finish on eight cylinders, you left time on the table. In the top fuel V8 classes, they typically finish on 5 or 6 cylinders and most of the components have a mileage warranty of 1300 feet.
Drag racing is not really my thing, but I respect the hell out of those engine builders. It’s interesting to see one specific technology pushed to the absolute limit in one very specific use case. It’s a peculiar form of engineering that is pretty cool.
4 Likes
Many years ago, I took my FIL to a NHRA event when the in laws were visiting. We were seated at the starting line, and I offered him ear protection. He did the usual macho “oh yeah I don’t need that my eardrums have blown so many times” and so on. I was like 
ok its your hearing dude.
Anyway, once the first pair of funny cars did their 1/4 mile run, he asked me sheepishly if I still had a spare set of earplugs for him to use.
It’s really hard to fathom just how loud those nitro burning cars are.
(Fun fact, sound in air can’t get higher than 194dB because any higher than that, the pressure wave essentially destroys itself. It’s much higher underwater, but there’s still an upper limit of some 240dB.)
3 Likes
Those drivers have to have nerves of steel as well. There’s not a lot of margin for error when you’re driving at 300mph plus. (As Richard Hammond learned the hard way.)
2 Likes
I had the pleasure of seeing/hearing this beauty live
You could hear it above all the other race bikes, I think it was the oldest on the track.
3 Likes
You don’t have to be 1000th.
You wait. You wait for the reverse engineers to look at it.
1 Like
Probably brakes are next.
1 Like
you live in miami and need AC to be able to drive your conspicuously over priced jerkmobile? that’s another subscription. a bargain at $120/mo USD!
i mean some “subscription” car makers charge a per month rate for the leather seat warmer, why not the air chiller?
