Mercedes collision notification

TNGL · 29 Nov 2020 at 12:24

I received this message on my phone last night, went to check the car and I couldn't see any damage or signs of an impact at all (parked on the street). Turning the car on showed an in-car notification of the same message.

Has anybody had a similar alert and was it a false alarm or not?

I've not read of many people having false alarms but I have nothing else to put this down to at the moment other than a false alarm.

Kenai · 29 Nov 2020 at 12:41

Would 'slight impact' perhaps get triggered by something as slight as a drunk person wobbling past and bumping into it? Or does it need something more substantial? Maybe go and bump into your car and try it?

Nasher · 29 Nov 2020 at 12:51

An impact.... somewhere on the car. Great system

Bear · 29 Nov 2020 at 13:15

I had it flag up on my car a few weeks ago, could be someone parking and just given your car a slight nudge. No damage when I checked so it was all good

TNGL · 29 Nov 2020 at 13:32

Kenai said:
Would 'slight impact' perhaps get triggered by something as slight as a drunk person wobbling past and bumping into it? Or does it need something more substantial? Maybe go and bump into your car and try it?

I tried that but nothing! You do get kids passing on their bikes so wondered if one of them knocked into it but no signs of that. The car was quite dirty to be fair and no distinct imprints from an impact so I'm baffled.

Bear said:
I had it flag up on my car a few weeks ago, could be someone parking and just given your car a slight nudge. No damage when I checked so it was all good

I thought this too and it would have been somebody going in or out of their driveway as I was parked in a section between two houses with driveways. No obvious marks or scratches you'd expect if somebody scraped by it though. Could well have been that and ended up being able to come away with no damage.

Nasher said:
An impact.... somewhere on the car. Great system

It's supposed to tell you where the damage occurred which is also why this has baffled me. Some people have reported this after being on a ferry journey or having their car on a ramp. It did make me think did somebody try to jack my car up to steal the cat but that doesn't appear to be the case.

mattyg · 29 Nov 2020 at 13:37

Our house shakes when a big enough wagon goes passed. Maybe it was something like that.

Nasher · 29 Nov 2020 at 13:43

TNGL said:
It's supposed to tell you where the damage occurred which is also why this has baffled me. Some people have reported this after being on a ferry journey or having their car on a ramp. It did make me think did somebody try to jack my car up to steal the cat but that doesn't appear to be the case.

They are only interested in cats on hybrid cars afaik. Mainly Japanese ones as they are worth much more.

Stu999 · 29 Nov 2020 at 13:59

Nasher said:
An impact.... somewhere on the car. Great system

Agreed, very useful.

OP’s car:

Caption-COPYRIGHT-EXPRESS-STAR-13-01-02-PRThe-Mercedes-car-embedded-in-the-house-in-Moorhall-Lane-St.jpg

K.C. Leblanc · 29 Nov 2020 at 19:23

Stu999 said:
Agreed, very useful.

OP’s car:

A house crashed into it?

theone8181 · 29 Nov 2020 at 19:52

K.C. Leblanc said:
A house crashed into it?

Just jumped out of knowhere

.

Nasher · 29 Nov 2020 at 20:19

It was foggy

NathWraith · 30 Nov 2020 at 09:33

Stu999 said:
Agreed, very useful.

OP’s car:

This killed me

Rroff · 1 Dec 2020 at 04:32

From the "slight impact" and the way these kind of sensors tend to work I suspect a large vehicle passed close by or something rocking the whole car. Does the date/time correspond with something like rubbish collection? (though ours are always am)

Semple · 1 Dec 2020 at 14:35

Nasher said:
An impact.... somewhere on the car. Great system

Hah yep, it's like in software dev where you get "an unknown error has occurred" - very helpful.

Based on the fact it's suggesting a collision detection for the entire car, unless something has landed on ever corner (possibly crushing it) i'd put it down to a false alarm.

theone8181 · 1 Dec 2020 at 19:17

Maybe someone let out massive fart nearby and it rocked the car

.

ShiWarrior · 1 Dec 2020 at 19:33

might be someone's loud exhaust setting it off, or someone parked next to it and slamming their car door really heavily

my Dashcam picks those up sometimes
also could be a 40 Tonne truck going by closely rocking the car, this could also set it off

K.C. Leblanc · 1 Dec 2020 at 23:07

Maybe it's so clever it's realised the earth is moving and it's decided to have an existential crisis.