95 S420, can MB dealer tell your recent Speed

[DanielW]

Can MB dealer techs tell what your avg. speed or recent top speed was? Since its an electronic speedo I wondered if that information is stored as an average or peak value somewhere. I'm really not paranoid, about the dealer knowing but wouldn't want my insurance co. or the police to have that info access !!

Does anyone know ?

DanielW

no, there isn't any recorders or other devices that is installed from the factory,

[neanderthal]

some of the newer cars have a black box thingy that records the last thirty seconds or so of your driving and only stops recording if you have an accident that is bad enough to activate the airbags.

so you could ahve that in your car, as mercedes is well known for being an early adopter of technology.

[sixto]

In the US I wouldn't worry about it... yet. We're just getting to the point that they can give you a speeding ticket by mail if they catch you with photo radar. They'll have to deal with the ACLU before they can stick in individual with evidence from an electronic telltale. They'll probably start with rental cars before such features go mainstream.

Now, when you buy a car like the Mitsubishi Evo they tell you not to rev past 6000 rpm for the first 1000 miles or something like that. The dealer tells you that you'll void the warranty or some part of the warranty if you do. Why they don't code the ECU with a lower rev limiter for the first 1000 miles is beyond me. Particularly in a car that feels like is has a power assisted throttle pedal.

FWIW, the add-on GPS nav unit in our minivan recorded a top speed of 375 mph. How my wife did that in a car with governed top speed of 115 mph I'll never know

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

[Rahulio1989300E]

That, my friend, is an evil scheme by Mitsu to try to steal warrenties away from punk kids and young adults who just can't wait to punch it off the dealer lot!!!!

ITS ALL A CONSPIRACY I TELL YOU!!!!!

[Rahulio1989300E]

Originally Posted by sixto

In the US I wouldn't worry about it... yet. We're just getting to the point that they can give you a speeding ticket by mail if they catch you with photo radar. They'll have to deal with the ACLU before they can stick in individual with evidence from an electronic telltale. They'll probably start with rental cars before such features go mainstream.

Now, when you buy a car like the Mitsubishi Evo they tell you not to rev past 6000 rpm for the first 1000 miles or something like that. The dealer tells you that you'll void the warranty or some part of the warranty if you do. Why they don't code the ECU with a lower rev limiter for the first 1000 miles is beyond me. Particularly in a car that feels like is has a power assisted throttle pedal.

FWIW, the add-on GPS nav unit in our minivan recorded a top speed of 375 mph. How my wife did that in a car with governed top speed of 115 mph I'll never know

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Maybe she drove off a short cliff!!!!

[Strife]

This is a big issue right now in the US - I've seen this come up in a for reckless driving/drunk driving cases involving fatalities. GM cars can do this (last X seconds before the airbags are deployed" but I think only the factory can decode it and it is supposed to be "private research data" - until it's subpoenaed...I find it disturbing because it is definitely a "camel's nose in the tent" sort of thing...in a few years, flash memory and GPS will become so cheap that it would be possible to record every single place a car went in it's life and the car parameters during that time. Absolutely technically possible to do right now, cheap enough to be practical very soon.

[C32AMG]

Black box or EDR/ event date recorder have been installed in 25millon car in the US since 1995, with out the owners knowledge. They are also used in the trucking industry.
Talk about invasion of privacy, this is it.

[stevebfl]

The Bosch airbag controllers have the ability to record the crash profile to record. This includes all cars back to the first units in the 80's. Only the factory can get into this info. It is not available through normal interfaces.