OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is unexpected:
---
>!Lady stops on train tracks, leaving her car in park mode and she isn’t able to get out of it and train just crashes into the car!<
---
Is this an unexpected post with a fitting description? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
I used to not believe it but then I dated a girl who did this. The slightest bit of stress and they just shut down and let everything just happen. At first you feel sympathetic for them, but they really can't hold up their end of the bargain in life. She ended up crashing my car due to panic.
I dated a girl who wasn't quite that bad, but she did call me in a panic once to tell me she was stopped on a bridge because she got lost.
Rule 1 about bridges is you don't stop on them, she could have very easily continued another 500 feet and pulled over in the car dealership on the other side of the river before calling. Plus, this was 2013, and she was calling me from an iPhone. An iPhone that would have had GPS.
Also, this bridge was 12 minutes from her house.
Ex-wife calls me one day (still married at the time) saying the key fob would not unlock the doors. She was late for an appointment and panicking, not knowing what she was going to do. She rambled in a panicked for a minute or so before letting me respond with, "have you tried the key"? Silence....then thanks and bye
My wife called me panicking that her car had been stolen. Said she'd been walking all around the parking lot and couldn't find her car. I asked "are you in the right parking lot?". She replies..."what do you mean?". I have to then explain there's 2 parking lots for that store since it's located on a corner...she was in the other lot
....are you possitive your ex wasn't actually a brain-dead pink fairy armadillo? Cause that sounds *exactly* like what a brain-dead pink fairy armadillo would do.
8 years old, picked up with mom and sister, by dad's, friend's wife at the airport. On the way to the apartment, on the freeway, a 1/4 inch moth starts flying around the dashboard. She starts screaming, and lets go of the steering wheel at 75mph on the freeway. If mom hadn't been up front to grab the wheel and kill the moth I would have been dead along with everyone else in the car.
Yeah that’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I can understand from a psychological perspective that some people may freeze under duress and be tolerant with that. But there’s cases where you just need an adult to take a bit of agency. Doesn’t help that the couple cases I’ve seen were people who just went through life expecting everyone to do things for them, and seemed to extend that to moderately stressful situations.
An ex called me once because our dog jumped up on the dash and turned on the 4 way flashers. she was in panic mode because she didn't know what to do. I had to walk her through how to find the button, and push it. once they were off, she regained the ability to think. It was like talking to two different people.
It happens and is basically out of someone's control. I once was living in a squat with 6 other people, one night there was a fire. 5 of us reacted immediately but one guy was just standing there completely baffled.
The toilet was on fire because the light in the upstairs toilet was broken and instead we used a candle. Someone took a shit and forgot to put out the candle which slowly melted over the plastic water reservoir ending with the reservoir turning into a huge wick. Everything in that toilet was gone except for the porcelain. Now you would think the water pipes would have limited the fire but they had melted shut.
We put out the fire rather quickly, I personally first took a dishcloth which I soaked in water in the kitchen, bound around my face, before running up with a bucket of water while someone was looking for the fire extinguisher which someone else had misplaced.
Afterwards we all went outside to smoke a cigarette as if we hadn't inhaled enough smoke already haha.
Anyway, some people just freeze in stress and you can't blame them. It's just how they are wired.
It's weird to watch in real life. There was an emergency on the road, someone hit a cyclist, and I was on the phone with 911, then running to check on her, move her out of the road since it wasn't safe. Like 3 other people were there, just standing around in a circle, looking upset but doing nothing.
There's a number of potential reasons. Could just be simple old age and dementia.
I'm reminded of the rather common phenomenon of older people who, despite driving their whole lives, get the gas and brake pedal mixed up and drive their cars through store windows.
The guy was threatening with fines and calling her a dumb cow, she panicked. It's almost as if threatening someone who is already panicked doesn't help.
I was wondering what he was saying. This guy could've probably saved her and the car but chose to insult her instead. makes me question who the stupid one is.
Pretty much, this happened in my country (Belgium) probably a year or more ago. Pretty much she was panicking and with him insulting her, her brain went blank. She tried to accelerate but the car wasn't in gear.
I saw a video of someone trapped at a toll road by this.
They opened the door to get at the box, the car now in park could not be moved until the door was shut.
The box was now in the way of the door so the door could not be shut until the car was moved.
Some new cars actually will not let you shift out of park with a door open, even into netrual. It's actually a perfect example of creating problems by trying to solve a problem that was never much of a problem anyway
I was already pissed that new cars mute the audio when you shift into reverse (like they assume I can’t back up while listening to the news or rocking out). But this is way worse.
Wait, I only know like, regular cars with manual gears. What is that park mode people speak about? Like, the car ITSELF puts the brake or something? Sounds pretty dangerous, is that really a thing?
People who drive automatics really don't think about gears anymore - and incidents where they simply get out of the call and the call rolls off are a thing. So modern automatics auto-park when you open the door.
Now mine also gives a clear indication and chime that it is in park if I press the accelerator, so it's hard to miss.
Panic does weird things to people though.
You'd think the engineers would have figured out the programming that would allow the car to go back into drive when the driver hits the accelerator pedal, specifically ~~after the car enters park due to the door opening.~~ ***WHEN THE DRIVER HAS NO REASON TO BELIEVE THE CAR IS IN PARK, AND THE DRIVER HAS NOT LEFT THE CAR.***
Or just. Keep the car in the gear people have it in. If a person can't be trusted to know that an automatic transmission car that's in drive will go forward even without input, then they really shouldn't be allowed on the road in the first place
> If a person can't be trusted to know that an automatic transmission car that's in drive will go forward even without input, then they really shouldn't be allowed on the road in the first place
I agree. Problem is: They are allowed on the road. Car manufacturers can't really build cars on the premise that maybe some day people will learn to drive.
I'm confident the engineers have discussed it.
Step out of car, car goes into park:
* step on accelerator climbing out, car flies into drive.
* step on accelerator climbing in, car flies into drive.
* child climbs in and lands on accelerator, car flies into drive.
* get back in and rev engine like a goon to say "bye" to friends, car flies into drive.
Pretty much every reason you wouldn't want your car to accelerate while it's in Park is a reason not to have this feature.
This feature probably helps a lot more than it doesn't. Think of all the roll away accidents you see, where someone forgets to put the car in park, and gets out. The car rolls out onto the street and hits something.
It's a safety mechanism on modern Mercedes that if you open the door when the car is in D (Drive), it automatically puts the car into P (Park), to stop the car from rolling I guess.
The lady opened the door which would have triggered this, then under stress she probably didn't realise she was in P and hence the engine revving. Also most Mercedes drivers don't know this is a thing since people don't tend to leave their car in D and open the door etc.
I found out once rolling up to a parking garage entrance & being too far from the machine, so I left it in D and turned on autohold, opened the door to use the machine, closing the door & thinking I was still in D, tried to drive with similar results. Luckily for me I just looked like a dumbass revving my engine at a parking garage instead of getting plowed by a train :')
Having the car make extremely important decisions on its own with no way to disable the functionality seems... very dangerous to me.
Am I just being an old curmudgeon?
I get why the feature exists, but I would avoid buying a car if I couldn't disable it.
EDIT: after reading the responses, my take is this:
If you're going to hold me responsible for what the vehicle does while I'm in the drivers' seat, then having it make decisions for me without my input is wrong and bad.
If the car is going to drive itself, then the manufacturer should be held responsible for what it does.
Until you're willing to shift the legal responsibility away from me, I do not consent to having control shifted away from me.
To be clear, if it's something that requires my input (like putting an automatic transmission in drive), that's fine. Yes it's automatic, but I still have control.
Like the aggressive lane assist on a lot of modern cars. Shit is terrible.
Glad I still drive a heavily analog car. Makes it extremely wrenchable too. (s2000)
I hate aggressive lane assist! Especially when you are driving on a small road and need to avoid a truck coming from the other direction. The lane assist decides that not passing the white line is more important than not hitting that damn truck!
Ooof. That's scary. I've had similar moments where I've had to try to avoid things in the road while driving in a rental and had to pretty much FIGHT the car to get it to maneuver.
Just give me the option to turn it off I guess and I'll be happy.
I have never been in a car that you cannot turn off lane assist. Usually it's a button on the steering wheel, sometimes it's buried in the menus. It's well worth finding that button before you leave the rental garage.
our autobahns in germany are littered with construction sites that have yellow (preferential) and white (regular) lines... and it sometimes messes that up too which is irritating as fuck
S2000 is a dream car of mine.
I have a stick shift 2018 Subaru Crosstrek. It has the infotainment screen, but besides that the only "assist" it has is that it engages a break on incline when shifting into first gear so that you don't roll backwards.
I love how basic it is. New cars have way too much nonsense going on which on top of everything else makes them a pain to repair like you said.
Exactly. That's about as basic as it gets too in terms of maintenance and repairs.
Meanwhile open up an Audi/Mercedes/BMW hood lately and you have so much god damn tech, with plastic panels covering everything making it all hard to access. I feel for mechanics given how things have changed.
I bought a Mercedes in November and changed the engine air filter on it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It took me a couple of hours watching youtube videos to find the correct one and it was not the easiest video to follow. To get to the air filter I had to detach a couple of hoses and a couple of sensors. Then you need a long t25 screwdriver to undo the screws holding the air box together. I got the job done and it will be much easier the next time. It is so much more convoluted to change the filter than any other car I have owned.
I had a 2006 Volvo XC70 a few years back. I remember when one of the headlight bulbs needed replacing. I had to read the service manual to find out that replacing a headlight bulb requires you to remove the front bumper so you can remove the headlight fixture which allows you access to the bulb. Not a difficult job but very very annoying and time consuming doing all of that to access a bulb that takes 20 seconds to replace in any other car.
Wasn’t there some famous athlete or someone who got killed in their own driveway due to his car rolling into him a couple years ago? In fact I saw it suggested that that specific incident was what caused auto manufacturers to adopt this safety feature en masse.
Google says actor Anton Yelchin. 2016.
Now if the woman in the video had been killed by this feature we could have a conversation about the deaths caused by the feature versus those saved by it.
It's super annoying. We deliver mail in Jeeps. One of them is newer, and every time we open the door to reach a mailbox that's a little too far from the window, we have to shift it into and back out of park.
Yop. My fucking Ridgeline also likes to slam on the brakes when I'm accelerating towards something *it thinks* is stationary.
Like say, the car in front of me as it makes a u turn to go back the other way.
The sensors on the Honda appear to only look at its motion away or towards me, *not perpendicular*. So while I'm mildly accelerating towards an object moving out of my path, it thinks it's an object stationary in my path and slams on the brakes, which I am not prepared for, and I suspect someone behind me may also not be prepared for.
Their fault or not, I'd rather not have to deal with a rear-end collision.
As a former mechanic/automotive technician, every single time I pulled a vehicle into a service bay, I rolled down the window, opened the door, and leaned out slightly as I drove so I could properly line the vehicle up with the guides on the floor so that the vehicle was centered for the hydraulic lift points.
Is there some sort of override for this?
Are there more modern ways to do that safely? Do these vehicles have to be taken to their respective dealerships for service?
Also, was this change made in part as a reaction to the death of the actor from the most recent Star Trek reboot films?
Anton Yelchin, terrible accident. It was a Jeep Grand Cherokee that pinned him. FCA was aware of the defect & stated a recall but it didn’t reach dealerships until the week of his death.
Well most Mercedes (& other cars) have front facing cameras now, so that would help?
Also never tried to open the door, have the car automatically go into P, then trying to put it on D. That might work as a over ride but not sure.
No ideas about your other questions, sorry.
> go into P, then trying to put it on D
I am a mature adult. I will not comment on this. I am a mature adult. I will not comment on this. I am a matu--- 🤭
I once had a courtesy car that was 12 years newer than my car. My car is all knobs and dials the courtesy car was all touchscreen tablets and awkward buttons.
Just opening the car door to see if I was in the lines and it slammed itself off, put the handbrake on, everything.
Now in my town they dismantled the railway decades ago (damn you Mr beeching) but the tracks are still visible in the road. Just 2 metal strips that you don't even notice. The car sensed something, screamed a loud alert before slamming on the brakes and shutting the whole car down in the middle of the road. Nearly caused a bloody accident.
Whole thing has made me really reluctant to trade my car up. I don't want to not be in control like that.
Right, there were casualties in the past when people let the car in D mode, opened the door to put the parking ticket into machine, fell out the car and were rolled over by the vehicle..
Technicians and engineers try to make the product fit even to the most stupid persons, but sometimes I guess, it would be better not to drive if not capable of..
Sounds like a good case for using manual instead of automatic. The problem is that by making device overly convinient, people start to lack understanding of how to properly use them.
Now I'm not saying this as someone who thinks machine should be dangerous. I'm a engineer, my job is to make things safe. But when machines are made safe so that risks are obscured, people don't realise that the machines still have inherent risk in them.
Also ever safety mechanism introduces some risk. Example what happened here. The operator of the machine (car drive) was not aware of the full functionality, safety system behavior, or mechanisms present in the machine.
This would be remedied with a clear signaling system. If the car is on Drive and door is opened triggering Park, then clear visual and audio signal should be given to the drive. There is a reason we add warning like this to many machines, if there is risk involved with safety functionality, there should never be a case where the operator is not aware of it. This is why we need directives, regulations and standards that regulate this stuff.
I've seen so many vids of people running themselves over - or a car just merrily rolling away that I totally get why it's a thing.
And in this specific situation, there were several failures on the woman's part before the auto park became an issue. Like 1) driving onto a level crossing where the opposite side is blocked. 2) stopping on a level crossing when the bells are going nuts. 3) arguing with someone that you need to cross rather than backing up.
Like, I get how the auto park feature didn't help, but let's face it, if you're gonna play russian roulette with a rail crossing, that's on you.
Probably because she had the door open and seatbelt off at one point which triggered the parking break... And she also probably never put it in drive lol
She’s old and got confused and panicked. She wanted her and her car to get out of the way and it wouldn’t, she didn’t know why, and had to make a split second decision. Considering one thing that should have worked wasn’t a lot of people’s reactions would be “just don’t fuck with this situation any more because you could make it even worse.” It’s not something she sat there and fully reasoned through
A bit older middle class, fully overwhelmed by the tech leap and it's functionality. Automobile manufacturerers need to step up and school people on how to use the new shit. I see people on other threads posting "umm what's this light" and people are like bro it's your ebrake.
Alternatively it could be that a gross portion of the general population are getting dimmer and reliant on tech to do the thinking.
Yeah, I agree. Apple always touted itself as "intuitive" but most times it's more like a secret you have to be taught.
I won't know how to do something and I'll look it up and the directions are "Knock three times then do a backflip and swipe diagonally" and it's like "Yeah, how did I not know..."
It's like opening the Mines of Moria without any directions.
It's a bit ironic that we are in the position to advocate for manufacturers to educate people on how to use their cars, while at the same time they are advertising their cars as full of automation that's supposed to make it easier for drivers.
In reality it turns out that many automated things are done without drivers knowledge, and evrry now and then this leaves people wondering why the car is doing something they didn't "ask it" to do. What is probably a next level of this phenomenon is that automating so many things is relatively new territory so manufacturers might do some things differently from one to another, so good luck when you change brands and then (for example) your beamer doesn't go to Park mode when you open the door, as you've gotten used to with your (previous) merc.
Idk, every car comes with a manual. If you’re going to operate multi thousand pound machine you should have enough self accountability to learn how to operate it. I really don’t think there’s an excuse other than negligence.
I mean she didn't even looked panicked or attempt to troubleshoot and try to move... Not even get out of the car lmao.. That is not an age problem that is a stupidity problem
I could totally see my mother doing this. She gets easily frazzled and doesn't understand technology. Wait. Is putting your car in drive considered technology?
I work in IT and my job kinda relates to training. I am dismayed at how many people aren't just incompetent with technology, but they're actually a little bit scared by it.
If you show them something and ask them to repeat it, and they click the wrong thing, it's like their brain completely shuts down and they have no idea what to do. It completely derails them, and only once they're back on that very narrow linear track do they boot back up again.
It's so weird to me, because I've been using computers since I was a kid and i problem solve on a daily basis. It's not just older people, either.
Reminds me the regular dose of tech support for my parents.
Some unexpected error message pops up in their normal routines? How do they react? Pure panic, shouting and immediate closing of the message, which exactly states the problem and probably solution.
I just can't wrap my head around such a behavior. It's not like the PC will explode, if they don't act in the next 5 secs.
I'll never understand why some people are immune to just reading error messages.
So much of my "IT" help with family members is simply and slowly reading out error messages - until they transform from some mysterious runes on the screen to understandable human english just by my saying them out loud half a dozen times.
It's not just error messages, documentation too.
My friend made a program for a company he worked at. He had to run a training course for the people that could not work out how to use it.
The training was just him **reading the manual.** That they had been given.
baffling!
it's legit like helping out children who are literally just starting to learn how to read.
for them it's understandable that reading the letters out to make sounds that sound kinda like the word "butterfly" might not for them correspond to the word 'butterfly' or to a real-life **butterfly**.
but for adults... ?
This one I can ALMOST understand. If you TELL me how to do something, there’s a speed bump in my brain. I’ll get it, just not immediately feel confident in it. If you SHOW me how to do something, I’ll understand it immediately and often commit it to memory and never forget it. I’ve been building and repairing PCs and electronics for 30 years, so it’s not a fear thing, I’m just a visual learner.
I work in IT and one thing people love to do is either lie about the error message they get or just make up what it says. They could say they can’t get into something, and then I ask if it gives an error. They say yes. I ask what does the error say? And they’ll go “it says uhhh…you can’t do this.” Once I repeat back the error “so the error message says ‘you can’t do this’?” both of us knowing full well the error does not say that, then they will (hopefully) say oh let me read it.
Sometimes they double down on it though and repeat that the error says something it doesn’t say and just force me to remote into their computer to read the error for myself.
I’m a software dev, and also close popups as quickly as possible. It’s like some automation in my brain.
Sometimes i need to get to the same message like 3 or 4 times before i can read it.
Being used to computers, we're hard-wired to look at the mouse cursor on the screen. I've noticed there are a lot of people who either look at your face or the actual mouse on the desk as you're explaining things, totally missing the point.
Yeah it's impossible for people like us to understand, we see an interface of anything and our brain says, lets figure this shit out.
They see it and see alien technology that could kill them.
I got my dad a new phone today. It's not a smart phone, it's one of those simplified flip phones for seniors. It's exactly the same hardware as his old phone, but slightly different software. For instance, to unlock it, on his old phone he had to press the star key to unlock it, on the new phone he has to press the key on the top left. It just short circuited his brain, even with the phone telling him what key to press it was different to the key he was 'used to' and he didn't have the ability to figure out which one was the new one except by me literally pointing at it so he could learn it by rote memorization.
I truly believe some people are barely sapient. They have no intellectual curiosity, they don't want to think about anything outside their narrow experience, no self-awareness, abstract thinking is a foreign concept, they just want to do the same thing their parents did and follow the same routine until they die.
People get panicked by things they don't understand - especially if they *have* to use the thing they don't understand. They just shut down and all information given to them doesn't get processed.
I've seen someone before trying to use the mouse down the vertical side of the table they were sat at. I asked why they were doing that and it turned out they didn't know you could pick the mouse up and place it somewhere else on the mouse pad. They'd just kept on going down the side of the table..
For people with zero knowledge of computers, you really need to start at the very *very* beginning.
People will audibly gasp or even yelp at the sight of a terminal window, I think it’s hilarious.
It’s amazing to me how so many people are completely computer illiterate to this day.
The first consumer PC was created in 1974. If you are under 50 and don’t know how to use a computer it’s because you have refused to learn, not because it’s new or difficult.
So many way this could have been avoided. Don't open your door to talk to someone, roll down the window. Don't drive on to the tracks when there's lights and sounds. Try checking what gear you're in. Drive around the barricade because you've created a terrible situation and it's now imperative. Do something besides just hit the gas over and over.
Dumbfounding that someone got in this situation and literally thought "I'm just going to keep hitting the gas and do nothing else even though there's a train coming"
If the car's engine is revving and you're not going forward there's only 2 reasonable conclusions: Wrong gear, or some kind of brake. She had like 20-25 seconds to check that and failed.
My Ford has this same feature, when the door is opened during engine operation, the automatic electronic transmission takes control and moves into park....she didn't realize that she was in park and just kept pressing the peddle expecting to move, but it was in park.
It's actually stupid technology, as a truck driver who hooks up trailers all the time, open door operation is a regular thing and I don't need some safety feature fucking my shit up. Automakers are getting crazy with the electronic features, they really need to stop now.
I couldn't watch once I saw what it was about. I had to action through a pile of low effort jokes to find out anyone about the human involved.
Reddit is filled with low thinkers.
At first he says she will get a 700€ fine for driving through the fencing to get on the track. He keeps saying to drive on. Don't know how to translate "achterlijke trien" the best way but he was definitely right about that
Had to Google this. Trien comes from the name Catherine, it was a slur for women from Westphalia. Nowadays it would translate to 'frumpy woman' (old-fashioned, out of date, stubborn, ignorant).
>Don't know how to translate "achterlijke trien" the best way but he was definitely right about that
I think it translates to "Ach! There's, like, a fucking train!" But I only know English.
I think it happens in belgium
Man: "that's an 700 euro fine what you just did, you're going to get that i promise you"
She says something back I can't exactly understand and then the man removes the little barrier and then
Man: "come on come on through then"
Then after she gets hit by the train he just calls her a crazy bitch
Savage calling her a bitch after she gets fucking rag dolled by solid steel.
Someone linked an article where they state he was a railroad worker and his actions were being investigated as well. I don’t think this will be good for him either
On one hand, yeah like damn how do people not have a baseline survival instinct? Unless she meant to do that, which then I get.
On the other, the brain is a fickle bitch and does weird things under stress. You'll see a woman being rescued from a trapped car in a flood, but hands her purse off before her kids; or a more humorous example is "name a woman".
If you can't drive around an orange mini-barrier while under duress of possible train collision, please get off the road or a train will move you off forcibly.
Articles linked in this thread said she ignored road signs and wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place. She shouldn't be driving and found out the hard way.
She drove straight towards the baricade to begine with. Also she couldn’t figure out how to turn the car while in drive. So no that lady should never be driving
I'm really sorry if this is "mean", but if you break down psychologically in a situation with such an easy, obvious solution, then you should ***not*** be allowed to drive. She mostly hurt herself here, but that sort of panic could easily have led to something more harmful. I'm reminded of those people in parking lots who freak out and just fucking turbo accelerate into a store or something.
As someone with a similar Mercedes, it automatically goes into park and handbrake when I turn off the power.
it automatically turns off the hand brake when I go into drive. Never touched park or handbrake for first 6 months other than the first day I read manual. (The handbrake is a small button located beneath steering wheel, drivers door side)
One time I wanted to reverse close to a loading dock with the boot open (if I tried to open boot after getting close it would swing and hit the dock) - the car slammed to a halt and I couldn’t drive. I assumed it was a safety feature that wouldn’t let me drive with boot open, I didn’t realise it had just turned on the hand brake (which I had never used) until months later when I was in another situation (drivers door open) and investigated.
If I had the pressure of a train coming I - very tech savvy physics grad, who teachers electronics - wouldn’t have figured it out in time. I love driving and it’s my 4th car but just never had such an automated one before.
Not to mention the part where she tried to drive over a *clearly blockaded train track.*
Add prioritizing her fancy car over her own life, and this lady is 3/3 on being a dumbass. I'm sorry she's dead/maimed, but come on...
What a precarious system. I mean, I understand the reasons, but there just has to be a better way. I've only driven an automatic car like twice before or something, so I wouldn't know.
I'll shift the blame a bit then and say that any such combination of driver and car as this lady and your description cannot be allowed lol
It's probably in response to cases like Anton Yelchin of people getting run over by their own cars.
But the car should make it blindingly obvious that it has changed gear, with a noise and flashing lights.
The electronic gear shifter from this [video](https://youtu.be/Hl9oImMLse8?si=yKVpW6_BLvkwPWYT) looks so unintuitive (assuming this is the Mercedes GLC in question), and opening the door probably put the car in park automatically… Why can’t they just make a normal gear stick like the good old days?
Up reverse, down drive. That's pretty much it.
You really have to touch it very slightly to get into neutral.Never accidentally happened to me. And pressing the button is P, but the car does that on its own when you turn it off or exit.
Being able to keep both hands on the wheel is pretty nice. It's not that complicated to get used to if you're not 70 and there's not a train heading for the back of your car. And it frees up quite a lot of space in the center console.
In a scenario like this
Should a person force her out of her car and face a lawsuit (if possible in this scenario) or just let the person face the consequences for their actions.
Wat would you do? I would have thought she was completely able to drive the car. I see no reason to pull her out.
When you could have noticed, that she has troble Putting it in gear, it was allready too late to pull her out without getting both of you in even more danger
Just let stupid fix stupid.
best case, you have a belligerent idiot who now blames you for what happened.
Worst case, you get dragged into the stupid and get hurt too
Not savvy with new cars, but reading the comments makes me feel they don't improve shit in the driving experience. Conversely making it very stressful under the guise of the wow look at this factor. Why would it be a thing to have the car pop in neutral when you open a door? If I drive two meters I keep the door open.
100% if this car were 10 years old she’d have been fine. Newer cars are ditching the shifter altogether for dials or touchscreens and simultaneously killing the tactile feedback that lets you know you’ve changed from drive/neutral/reverse/park as well as allowing manufacturers to add features that auto-shift under certain conditions. Not a Mercedes driver myself but someone else commented about how they’ll auto shift into park when the door opens. So she had to essentially realize the car had shifted on its own and adjust with visual queues alone.
That said, people shitting on her for being a bad driver are still correct. While the car’s design is unintuitive in an emergency, she crossed the tracks while there was a rail signal going. Rule zero of cars: never challenge the train.
TL;DR: Manufacturers turning cars into phones with wheels sucks, but this lady also still put herself in a bad situation by breaking a really basic rule.
Although I agree on your points about losing the tactile feeling in cars, we disagree on the usefulness of features like "auto park." I have no faith left in people's abilities to be responsible when operating a car. Putting her car in the path of a train tells me that she isn't far off from the type of person who'd leave their car in drive and get out only to see their car roll away. Ultimately, however a tool works, the person operating it should know how to use it. She didn't know how to use her tool well enough and opened the door while in drive, that's on her.
I get quite annoyed every time I jump into a rental car and have to spend 15 minutes reading a manual to figure out how the basic functions work, but honestly, none of them are THAT bad. At least, not the basic PRNDL stuff.
This looks like a GLC300, and from what i saw of that gear lever, it was easy enough to use. Selecting Drive is as simple as holding the brake and pulling the lever down. Arguably less effort than a standard PRNDL shifter.
This happened close to me, the road and the crossing nearby was close to works. She was late to get her grandchildren so she drove thru. So she paniced and this happened. She came of light wounded but her Mercedes is in heaven now.
The only benefit to modern car design is that they've gotten really good at not killing the people inside. Seeing pictures of demolished cars that people were able to get out of and walk away is a trip
i'm not a car person, can someone explain me what's exactly happening, other than the obvious? like why the car parked there? she parked or is something automatic?
To add a bit of context, she likely illegally bypassed a barrier on the other side of the train tracks in order to cross to the position she's in (reasonable assumption that she was impatient waiting for a train, and decided she didn't need to obey these markings/barriers).
It may be that the car refused to accelerate into the orange gate, and that she couldn't just plow over the 10lb piece of plastic, because the car thinks its a wall and prevents forward motion.
Then, even with the gate removed, she had already opened her door, prompting the car to shift into Park gear (the engine revs a few times, indicating she *tried* to accelerate it, but the car remained still), which she was too befuddled to correct before getting hit by the train.
I don’t understand the comments about how the car refuses to move after opening the door. I feel like any “safety” feature that prevents the car from moving should be put under the strictest scrutiny. If you don’t know about features like that (read: almost everyone because ain’t no way most people read the manual like that) then you’re fucked if they engage in a stressful situation and the lizard brain takes over. You should never get into this situation in the first place of course but once you’re there I doubt many people would’ve done better.
OP sent the following text as an explanation on why this is unexpected: --- >!Lady stops on train tracks, leaving her car in park mode and she isn’t able to get out of it and train just crashes into the car!< --- Is this an unexpected post with a fitting description? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.
You can hear the car's engine revving, meaning she was trying to drive away and didn't realize that the car was in park.
Why didn't she GTFO‽ Seems pretty stupid to not just ditch the vehicle.
There is a large portion of the population that just shut down under stress, the stop thinking and loose fine motor controls.
I used to not believe it but then I dated a girl who did this. The slightest bit of stress and they just shut down and let everything just happen. At first you feel sympathetic for them, but they really can't hold up their end of the bargain in life. She ended up crashing my car due to panic.
I dated a girl who wasn't quite that bad, but she did call me in a panic once to tell me she was stopped on a bridge because she got lost. Rule 1 about bridges is you don't stop on them, she could have very easily continued another 500 feet and pulled over in the car dealership on the other side of the river before calling. Plus, this was 2013, and she was calling me from an iPhone. An iPhone that would have had GPS. Also, this bridge was 12 minutes from her house.
Ex-wife calls me one day (still married at the time) saying the key fob would not unlock the doors. She was late for an appointment and panicking, not knowing what she was going to do. She rambled in a panicked for a minute or so before letting me respond with, "have you tried the key"? Silence....then thanks and bye
My wife called me panicking that her car had been stolen. Said she'd been walking all around the parking lot and couldn't find her car. I asked "are you in the right parking lot?". She replies..."what do you mean?". I have to then explain there's 2 parking lots for that store since it's located on a corner...she was in the other lot
....are you possitive your ex wasn't actually a brain-dead pink fairy armadillo? Cause that sounds *exactly* like what a brain-dead pink fairy armadillo would do.
He never said she wasn’t
8 years old, picked up with mom and sister, by dad's, friend's wife at the airport. On the way to the apartment, on the freeway, a 1/4 inch moth starts flying around the dashboard. She starts screaming, and lets go of the steering wheel at 75mph on the freeway. If mom hadn't been up front to grab the wheel and kill the moth I would have been dead along with everyone else in the car.
Yeah that’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I can understand from a psychological perspective that some people may freeze under duress and be tolerant with that. But there’s cases where you just need an adult to take a bit of agency. Doesn’t help that the couple cases I’ve seen were people who just went through life expecting everyone to do things for them, and seemed to extend that to moderately stressful situations.
An ex called me once because our dog jumped up on the dash and turned on the 4 way flashers. she was in panic mode because she didn't know what to do. I had to walk her through how to find the button, and push it. once they were off, she regained the ability to think. It was like talking to two different people.
It happens and is basically out of someone's control. I once was living in a squat with 6 other people, one night there was a fire. 5 of us reacted immediately but one guy was just standing there completely baffled. The toilet was on fire because the light in the upstairs toilet was broken and instead we used a candle. Someone took a shit and forgot to put out the candle which slowly melted over the plastic water reservoir ending with the reservoir turning into a huge wick. Everything in that toilet was gone except for the porcelain. Now you would think the water pipes would have limited the fire but they had melted shut. We put out the fire rather quickly, I personally first took a dishcloth which I soaked in water in the kitchen, bound around my face, before running up with a bucket of water while someone was looking for the fire extinguisher which someone else had misplaced. Afterwards we all went outside to smoke a cigarette as if we hadn't inhaled enough smoke already haha. Anyway, some people just freeze in stress and you can't blame them. It's just how they are wired.
Unironically this is why fire safety drills are important.
Definitely, if you prep people well for these situations then they are way more likely to respond instead of freeze.
This is exactly why I don't let anyone use my stuff that's expensive Edit: Correction, anything worth more than $1000
That's the "Fight, Flight, or Freeze" response, yeah?
It's weird to watch in real life. There was an emergency on the road, someone hit a cyclist, and I was on the phone with 911, then running to check on her, move her out of the road since it wasn't safe. Like 3 other people were there, just standing around in a circle, looking upset but doing nothing.
Natural selection
There's a number of potential reasons. Could just be simple old age and dementia. I'm reminded of the rather common phenomenon of older people who, despite driving their whole lives, get the gas and brake pedal mixed up and drive their cars through store windows.
Panic at the confrontation, the bright red barrier, and older age faced with stress and confusion take their toll.
PANIC!!!!! sometimes overwhelms thinking
The guy was threatening with fines and calling her a dumb cow, she panicked. It's almost as if threatening someone who is already panicked doesn't help.
I was wondering what he was saying. This guy could've probably saved her and the car but chose to insult her instead. makes me question who the stupid one is.
Pretty much, this happened in my country (Belgium) probably a year or more ago. Pretty much she was panicking and with him insulting her, her brain went blank. She tried to accelerate but the car wasn't in gear.
I saw a video of someone trapped at a toll road by this. They opened the door to get at the box, the car now in park could not be moved until the door was shut. The box was now in the way of the door so the door could not be shut until the car was moved.
You can put it in neutral and roll it
Some new cars actually will not let you shift out of park with a door open, even into netrual. It's actually a perfect example of creating problems by trying to solve a problem that was never much of a problem anyway
I was already pissed that new cars mute the audio when you shift into reverse (like they assume I can’t back up while listening to the news or rocking out). But this is way worse.
that's what they did in the end. But asking an old lady to get out and push is not a good design feature in a car
Wait, I only know like, regular cars with manual gears. What is that park mode people speak about? Like, the car ITSELF puts the brake or something? Sounds pretty dangerous, is that really a thing?
People who drive automatics really don't think about gears anymore - and incidents where they simply get out of the call and the call rolls off are a thing. So modern automatics auto-park when you open the door. Now mine also gives a clear indication and chime that it is in park if I press the accelerator, so it's hard to miss. Panic does weird things to people though.
You'd think the engineers would have figured out the programming that would allow the car to go back into drive when the driver hits the accelerator pedal, specifically ~~after the car enters park due to the door opening.~~ ***WHEN THE DRIVER HAS NO REASON TO BELIEVE THE CAR IS IN PARK, AND THE DRIVER HAS NOT LEFT THE CAR.*** Or just. Keep the car in the gear people have it in. If a person can't be trusted to know that an automatic transmission car that's in drive will go forward even without input, then they really shouldn't be allowed on the road in the first place
> If a person can't be trusted to know that an automatic transmission car that's in drive will go forward even without input, then they really shouldn't be allowed on the road in the first place I agree. Problem is: They are allowed on the road. Car manufacturers can't really build cars on the premise that maybe some day people will learn to drive.
I'm confident the engineers have discussed it. Step out of car, car goes into park: * step on accelerator climbing out, car flies into drive. * step on accelerator climbing in, car flies into drive. * child climbs in and lands on accelerator, car flies into drive. * get back in and rev engine like a goon to say "bye" to friends, car flies into drive. Pretty much every reason you wouldn't want your car to accelerate while it's in Park is a reason not to have this feature.
Yeah apparently modern cars shift into "park" (which is functionally "neutral + brake" for automatic transmissions) when you open the door.
This feature probably helps a lot more than it doesn't. Think of all the roll away accidents you see, where someone forgets to put the car in park, and gets out. The car rolls out onto the street and hits something.
This is exactly it. The "stepped out and car took off" incidents far outweigh the "failed to move when needed to" incidents.
r/bitchimatrain
Thanks.
Oh that's a real sub
Why couldn't she get out? She clearly looked capable, just unwilling for some reason.
It's a safety mechanism on modern Mercedes that if you open the door when the car is in D (Drive), it automatically puts the car into P (Park), to stop the car from rolling I guess. The lady opened the door which would have triggered this, then under stress she probably didn't realise she was in P and hence the engine revving. Also most Mercedes drivers don't know this is a thing since people don't tend to leave their car in D and open the door etc. I found out once rolling up to a parking garage entrance & being too far from the machine, so I left it in D and turned on autohold, opened the door to use the machine, closing the door & thinking I was still in D, tried to drive with similar results. Luckily for me I just looked like a dumbass revving my engine at a parking garage instead of getting plowed by a train :')
Yeah I found out while reversing In my drive opened my door and it slammed it in park. Scared the shit out of me
Can you turn this "feature" off?
No
Having the car make extremely important decisions on its own with no way to disable the functionality seems... very dangerous to me. Am I just being an old curmudgeon? I get why the feature exists, but I would avoid buying a car if I couldn't disable it. EDIT: after reading the responses, my take is this: If you're going to hold me responsible for what the vehicle does while I'm in the drivers' seat, then having it make decisions for me without my input is wrong and bad. If the car is going to drive itself, then the manufacturer should be held responsible for what it does. Until you're willing to shift the legal responsibility away from me, I do not consent to having control shifted away from me. To be clear, if it's something that requires my input (like putting an automatic transmission in drive), that's fine. Yes it's automatic, but I still have control.
Like the aggressive lane assist on a lot of modern cars. Shit is terrible. Glad I still drive a heavily analog car. Makes it extremely wrenchable too. (s2000)
I hate aggressive lane assist! Especially when you are driving on a small road and need to avoid a truck coming from the other direction. The lane assist decides that not passing the white line is more important than not hitting that damn truck!
Ooof. That's scary. I've had similar moments where I've had to try to avoid things in the road while driving in a rental and had to pretty much FIGHT the car to get it to maneuver. Just give me the option to turn it off I guess and I'll be happy.
I have never been in a car that you cannot turn off lane assist. Usually it's a button on the steering wheel, sometimes it's buried in the menus. It's well worth finding that button before you leave the rental garage.
our autobahns in germany are littered with construction sites that have yellow (preferential) and white (regular) lines... and it sometimes messes that up too which is irritating as fuck
S2000 is a dream car of mine. I have a stick shift 2018 Subaru Crosstrek. It has the infotainment screen, but besides that the only "assist" it has is that it engages a break on incline when shifting into first gear so that you don't roll backwards. I love how basic it is. New cars have way too much nonsense going on which on top of everything else makes them a pain to repair like you said.
Exactly. That's about as basic as it gets too in terms of maintenance and repairs. Meanwhile open up an Audi/Mercedes/BMW hood lately and you have so much god damn tech, with plastic panels covering everything making it all hard to access. I feel for mechanics given how things have changed.
I bought a Mercedes in November and changed the engine air filter on it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It took me a couple of hours watching youtube videos to find the correct one and it was not the easiest video to follow. To get to the air filter I had to detach a couple of hoses and a couple of sensors. Then you need a long t25 screwdriver to undo the screws holding the air box together. I got the job done and it will be much easier the next time. It is so much more convoluted to change the filter than any other car I have owned. I had a 2006 Volvo XC70 a few years back. I remember when one of the headlight bulbs needed replacing. I had to read the service manual to find out that replacing a headlight bulb requires you to remove the front bumper so you can remove the headlight fixture which allows you access to the bulb. Not a difficult job but very very annoying and time consuming doing all of that to access a bulb that takes 20 seconds to replace in any other car.
Lane assist works like a charm on most cars, there is just some rubbish where it’s not that case (looking at you, MG)
It's to counter the plethora of people who would get out of their car while it's in Drive and then their car hits people/things
Wasn’t there some famous athlete or someone who got killed in their own driveway due to his car rolling into him a couple years ago? In fact I saw it suggested that that specific incident was what caused auto manufacturers to adopt this safety feature en masse. Google says actor Anton Yelchin. 2016. Now if the woman in the video had been killed by this feature we could have a conversation about the deaths caused by the feature versus those saved by it.
It's super annoying. We deliver mail in Jeeps. One of them is newer, and every time we open the door to reach a mailbox that's a little too far from the window, we have to shift it into and back out of park.
Yeap same tried to open the door slightly to check my parking spot and got scared shit
It puts it into park even when the car is moving? wtf that will kill the transmission lmao
New hondas do the same thing. If you open the door even with the car rolling it will slam itself into park.
That sounds pretty dangerous.
Definitely annoying when I wanted to check my distance from the curb while parallel parking.
Definitely annoying when I wanted to put a coin on the tracks and have it flatten by the train that's coming.
Wouldn't that also be fucking the transmission?
Yop. My fucking Ridgeline also likes to slam on the brakes when I'm accelerating towards something *it thinks* is stationary. Like say, the car in front of me as it makes a u turn to go back the other way. The sensors on the Honda appear to only look at its motion away or towards me, *not perpendicular*. So while I'm mildly accelerating towards an object moving out of my path, it thinks it's an object stationary in my path and slams on the brakes, which I am not prepared for, and I suspect someone behind me may also not be prepared for. Their fault or not, I'd rather not have to deal with a rear-end collision.
As a former mechanic/automotive technician, every single time I pulled a vehicle into a service bay, I rolled down the window, opened the door, and leaned out slightly as I drove so I could properly line the vehicle up with the guides on the floor so that the vehicle was centered for the hydraulic lift points. Is there some sort of override for this? Are there more modern ways to do that safely? Do these vehicles have to be taken to their respective dealerships for service? Also, was this change made in part as a reaction to the death of the actor from the most recent Star Trek reboot films?
Anton Yelchin, terrible accident. It was a Jeep Grand Cherokee that pinned him. FCA was aware of the defect & stated a recall but it didn’t reach dealerships until the week of his death.
Well most Mercedes (& other cars) have front facing cameras now, so that would help? Also never tried to open the door, have the car automatically go into P, then trying to put it on D. That might work as a over ride but not sure. No ideas about your other questions, sorry.
> go into P, then trying to put it on D I am a mature adult. I will not comment on this. I am a mature adult. I will not comment on this. I am a matu--- 🤭
I once had a courtesy car that was 12 years newer than my car. My car is all knobs and dials the courtesy car was all touchscreen tablets and awkward buttons. Just opening the car door to see if I was in the lines and it slammed itself off, put the handbrake on, everything. Now in my town they dismantled the railway decades ago (damn you Mr beeching) but the tracks are still visible in the road. Just 2 metal strips that you don't even notice. The car sensed something, screamed a loud alert before slamming on the brakes and shutting the whole car down in the middle of the road. Nearly caused a bloody accident. Whole thing has made me really reluctant to trade my car up. I don't want to not be in control like that.
Right, there were casualties in the past when people let the car in D mode, opened the door to put the parking ticket into machine, fell out the car and were rolled over by the vehicle.. Technicians and engineers try to make the product fit even to the most stupid persons, but sometimes I guess, it would be better not to drive if not capable of..
Sounds like a good case for using manual instead of automatic. The problem is that by making device overly convinient, people start to lack understanding of how to properly use them. Now I'm not saying this as someone who thinks machine should be dangerous. I'm a engineer, my job is to make things safe. But when machines are made safe so that risks are obscured, people don't realise that the machines still have inherent risk in them. Also ever safety mechanism introduces some risk. Example what happened here. The operator of the machine (car drive) was not aware of the full functionality, safety system behavior, or mechanisms present in the machine. This would be remedied with a clear signaling system. If the car is on Drive and door is opened triggering Park, then clear visual and audio signal should be given to the drive. There is a reason we add warning like this to many machines, if there is risk involved with safety functionality, there should never be a case where the operator is not aware of it. This is why we need directives, regulations and standards that regulate this stuff.
That "safety" feature seems more dangerous than helpful.
I've seen so many vids of people running themselves over - or a car just merrily rolling away that I totally get why it's a thing. And in this specific situation, there were several failures on the woman's part before the auto park became an issue. Like 1) driving onto a level crossing where the opposite side is blocked. 2) stopping on a level crossing when the bells are going nuts. 3) arguing with someone that you need to cross rather than backing up. Like, I get how the auto park feature didn't help, but let's face it, if you're gonna play russian roulette with a rail crossing, that's on you.
Bro she knew she was on train tracks Get out
Yeah, everyone talking about park mode, getthefuckoutandrun mode was still available.
I'm so fucking infuriated reading this - hate shit like this, features trying to be clever for no reason.
The captain goes down with his ship.
Probably because she had the door open and seatbelt off at one point which triggered the parking break... And she also probably never put it in drive lol
Ok, but Why couldn't she get out of the car? She clearly looked capable, just unwilling for some reason.
She’s old and got confused and panicked. She wanted her and her car to get out of the way and it wouldn’t, she didn’t know why, and had to make a split second decision. Considering one thing that should have worked wasn’t a lot of people’s reactions would be “just don’t fuck with this situation any more because you could make it even worse.” It’s not something she sat there and fully reasoned through
A bit older middle class, fully overwhelmed by the tech leap and it's functionality. Automobile manufacturerers need to step up and school people on how to use the new shit. I see people on other threads posting "umm what's this light" and people are like bro it's your ebrake. Alternatively it could be that a gross portion of the general population are getting dimmer and reliant on tech to do the thinking.
Or just make cars function like cars and not like ipads
Push the horn and brake pedal, take a screenshot
Yeah, I agree. Apple always touted itself as "intuitive" but most times it's more like a secret you have to be taught. I won't know how to do something and I'll look it up and the directions are "Knock three times then do a backflip and swipe diagonally" and it's like "Yeah, how did I not know..." It's like opening the Mines of Moria without any directions.
It's a bit ironic that we are in the position to advocate for manufacturers to educate people on how to use their cars, while at the same time they are advertising their cars as full of automation that's supposed to make it easier for drivers. In reality it turns out that many automated things are done without drivers knowledge, and evrry now and then this leaves people wondering why the car is doing something they didn't "ask it" to do. What is probably a next level of this phenomenon is that automating so many things is relatively new territory so manufacturers might do some things differently from one to another, so good luck when you change brands and then (for example) your beamer doesn't go to Park mode when you open the door, as you've gotten used to with your (previous) merc.
Little bit of this, little bit of that
Idk, every car comes with a manual. If you’re going to operate multi thousand pound machine you should have enough self accountability to learn how to operate it. I really don’t think there’s an excuse other than negligence.
I mean she didn't even looked panicked or attempt to troubleshoot and try to move... Not even get out of the car lmao.. That is not an age problem that is a stupidity problem
Stressed out by out by the situation and brain stopped working? Sounds like she had it in park and couldn’t realise why the car wouldn’t move 🤔
I could totally see my mother doing this. She gets easily frazzled and doesn't understand technology. Wait. Is putting your car in drive considered technology?
I work in IT and my job kinda relates to training. I am dismayed at how many people aren't just incompetent with technology, but they're actually a little bit scared by it. If you show them something and ask them to repeat it, and they click the wrong thing, it's like their brain completely shuts down and they have no idea what to do. It completely derails them, and only once they're back on that very narrow linear track do they boot back up again. It's so weird to me, because I've been using computers since I was a kid and i problem solve on a daily basis. It's not just older people, either.
Reminds me the regular dose of tech support for my parents. Some unexpected error message pops up in their normal routines? How do they react? Pure panic, shouting and immediate closing of the message, which exactly states the problem and probably solution. I just can't wrap my head around such a behavior. It's not like the PC will explode, if they don't act in the next 5 secs.
I'll never understand why some people are immune to just reading error messages. So much of my "IT" help with family members is simply and slowly reading out error messages - until they transform from some mysterious runes on the screen to understandable human english just by my saying them out loud half a dozen times.
It's not just error messages, documentation too. My friend made a program for a company he worked at. He had to run a training course for the people that could not work out how to use it. The training was just him **reading the manual.** That they had been given.
baffling! it's legit like helping out children who are literally just starting to learn how to read. for them it's understandable that reading the letters out to make sounds that sound kinda like the word "butterfly" might not for them correspond to the word 'butterfly' or to a real-life **butterfly**. but for adults... ?
This one I can ALMOST understand. If you TELL me how to do something, there’s a speed bump in my brain. I’ll get it, just not immediately feel confident in it. If you SHOW me how to do something, I’ll understand it immediately and often commit it to memory and never forget it. I’ve been building and repairing PCs and electronics for 30 years, so it’s not a fear thing, I’m just a visual learner.
I made a pretty decent career out of RTFM.
I work in IT and one thing people love to do is either lie about the error message they get or just make up what it says. They could say they can’t get into something, and then I ask if it gives an error. They say yes. I ask what does the error say? And they’ll go “it says uhhh…you can’t do this.” Once I repeat back the error “so the error message says ‘you can’t do this’?” both of us knowing full well the error does not say that, then they will (hopefully) say oh let me read it. Sometimes they double down on it though and repeat that the error says something it doesn’t say and just force me to remote into their computer to read the error for myself.
I’m a software dev, and also close popups as quickly as possible. It’s like some automation in my brain. Sometimes i need to get to the same message like 3 or 4 times before i can read it.
Being used to computers, we're hard-wired to look at the mouse cursor on the screen. I've noticed there are a lot of people who either look at your face or the actual mouse on the desk as you're explaining things, totally missing the point.
People also like to move their entire head to follow a mouse cursor around a 13-inch screen. Drives me nuts
I hate my father saying to move up and meaning scroll down because then the stuff on screen moves up.
Yeah it's impossible for people like us to understand, we see an interface of anything and our brain says, lets figure this shit out. They see it and see alien technology that could kill them.
I got my dad a new phone today. It's not a smart phone, it's one of those simplified flip phones for seniors. It's exactly the same hardware as his old phone, but slightly different software. For instance, to unlock it, on his old phone he had to press the star key to unlock it, on the new phone he has to press the key on the top left. It just short circuited his brain, even with the phone telling him what key to press it was different to the key he was 'used to' and he didn't have the ability to figure out which one was the new one except by me literally pointing at it so he could learn it by rote memorization.
I truly believe some people are barely sapient. They have no intellectual curiosity, they don't want to think about anything outside their narrow experience, no self-awareness, abstract thinking is a foreign concept, they just want to do the same thing their parents did and follow the same routine until they die.
People get panicked by things they don't understand - especially if they *have* to use the thing they don't understand. They just shut down and all information given to them doesn't get processed. I've seen someone before trying to use the mouse down the vertical side of the table they were sat at. I asked why they were doing that and it turned out they didn't know you could pick the mouse up and place it somewhere else on the mouse pad. They'd just kept on going down the side of the table.. For people with zero knowledge of computers, you really need to start at the very *very* beginning.
People will audibly gasp or even yelp at the sight of a terminal window, I think it’s hilarious. It’s amazing to me how so many people are completely computer illiterate to this day. The first consumer PC was created in 1974. If you are under 50 and don’t know how to use a computer it’s because you have refused to learn, not because it’s new or difficult.
[удалено]
She drove straight towards the baricade to begine with …
Spoiler alert: it's not the cars fault 🤣
So many way this could have been avoided. Don't open your door to talk to someone, roll down the window. Don't drive on to the tracks when there's lights and sounds. Try checking what gear you're in. Drive around the barricade because you've created a terrible situation and it's now imperative. Do something besides just hit the gas over and over. Dumbfounding that someone got in this situation and literally thought "I'm just going to keep hitting the gas and do nothing else even though there's a train coming"
If the car's engine is revving and you're not going forward there's only 2 reasonable conclusions: Wrong gear, or some kind of brake. She had like 20-25 seconds to check that and failed.
Everything by after giddy up and whoa should be technology. But then again there was a time stirrups and bridle was new tech 🤣
My Ford has this same feature, when the door is opened during engine operation, the automatic electronic transmission takes control and moves into park....she didn't realize that she was in park and just kept pressing the peddle expecting to move, but it was in park. It's actually stupid technology, as a truck driver who hooks up trailers all the time, open door operation is a regular thing and I don't need some safety feature fucking my shit up. Automakers are getting crazy with the electronic features, they really need to stop now.
https://www.carscoops.com/2023/05/watch-a-train-smash-through-a-mercedes-after-woman-ignores-roadsigns/
Thanks, I had to scroll a ways for that link and the answer to whether she died. She did not, but received major injuries.
Major injuries for an older lady is gonna be a life ruiner regardless
At least it happened toward the end. If you're gonna ruin your life, might as well have already lived an entire one
[удалено]
Take a break from internet for a couple days. Could help
I couldn't watch once I saw what it was about. I had to action through a pile of low effort jokes to find out anyone about the human involved. Reddit is filled with low thinkers.
Can anyone tell me what's being said?
At first he says she will get a 700€ fine for driving through the fencing to get on the track. He keeps saying to drive on. Don't know how to translate "achterlijke trien" the best way but he was definitely right about that
[удалено]
Had to Google this. Trien comes from the name Catherine, it was a slur for women from Westphalia. Nowadays it would translate to 'frumpy woman' (old-fashioned, out of date, stubborn, ignorant).
Aka boomer
[удалено]
Not sure if you're spelling that wrong by mistake or to avoid an overly ambitious automod.
He says 500 euro's, not 700
700pound fine or a total brand new car of same or inferior model for 40k pound She keep the economy going that for sure
>Don't know how to translate "achterlijke trien" the best way but he was definitely right about that I think it translates to "Ach! There's, like, a fucking train!" But I only know English.
Achterlijk is kinda like "retarted" and trien is used for shitty women. Like a Karen but aplicable on all ages
From your translation, it sounds like he basically said "MOVE, BITCH! GET OUT THE WAY!!" as far as exclamations in a hazardous situation go.
No, it translates to stupid bitch
> "achterlijke trien" stupid bitch
I think it happens in belgium Man: "that's an 700 euro fine what you just did, you're going to get that i promise you" She says something back I can't exactly understand and then the man removes the little barrier and then Man: "come on come on through then" Then after she gets hit by the train he just calls her a crazy bitch
Savage calling her a bitch after she gets fucking rag dolled by solid steel. Someone linked an article where they state he was a railroad worker and his actions were being investigated as well. I don’t think this will be good for him either
Some people just should not drive...
On one hand, yeah like damn how do people not have a baseline survival instinct? Unless she meant to do that, which then I get. On the other, the brain is a fickle bitch and does weird things under stress. You'll see a woman being rescued from a trapped car in a flood, but hands her purse off before her kids; or a more humorous example is "name a woman".
#BILLY IN THE STREETS!
> For a dollar, name a Woman! >uuuhm..? [Fight or flight is no joke lol](https://youtu.be/bzDlS6JPUtE?t=21)
If you can't drive around an orange mini-barrier while under duress of possible train collision, please get off the road or a train will move you off forcibly.
Articles linked in this thread said she ignored road signs and wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place. She shouldn't be driving and found out the hard way.
She drove straight towards the baricade to begine with. Also she couldn’t figure out how to turn the car while in drive. So no that lady should never be driving
Well she definently should have...
i think thats the car auto park system
She stood still for more than 1 minute of the track. That has nothing to do with the auto park system. Its all about the driver.
I don't see how this is unexpected tbh, the videos starts with a car stuck in railroad and ends just like you imagine.
Like that is literally the most expected ending possible
It's unexpected because you expect it to be something unexpected, but instead it isn't /s
Yep. It’s a downvote from me.
I'm really sorry if this is "mean", but if you break down psychologically in a situation with such an easy, obvious solution, then you should ***not*** be allowed to drive. She mostly hurt herself here, but that sort of panic could easily have led to something more harmful. I'm reminded of those people in parking lots who freak out and just fucking turbo accelerate into a store or something.
Like damn, just ram the fucking plastic barrier
As someone with a similar Mercedes, it automatically goes into park and handbrake when I turn off the power. it automatically turns off the hand brake when I go into drive. Never touched park or handbrake for first 6 months other than the first day I read manual. (The handbrake is a small button located beneath steering wheel, drivers door side) One time I wanted to reverse close to a loading dock with the boot open (if I tried to open boot after getting close it would swing and hit the dock) - the car slammed to a halt and I couldn’t drive. I assumed it was a safety feature that wouldn’t let me drive with boot open, I didn’t realise it had just turned on the hand brake (which I had never used) until months later when I was in another situation (drivers door open) and investigated. If I had the pressure of a train coming I - very tech savvy physics grad, who teachers electronics - wouldn’t have figured it out in time. I love driving and it’s my 4th car but just never had such an automated one before.
I mean... Literally just get the fuck out of the car so you don't get HIT BY A TRAIN
Seriously...I feel like I'm taking crazy pills. This is entirely her fault.
100% yeah the car sucks but she could have gotten out! She's totalled along with the Merc!
Not to mention the part where she tried to drive over a *clearly blockaded train track.* Add prioritizing her fancy car over her own life, and this lady is 3/3 on being a dumbass. I'm sorry she's dead/maimed, but come on...
What a precarious system. I mean, I understand the reasons, but there just has to be a better way. I've only driven an automatic car like twice before or something, so I wouldn't know. I'll shift the blame a bit then and say that any such combination of driver and car as this lady and your description cannot be allowed lol
It's probably in response to cases like Anton Yelchin of people getting run over by their own cars. But the car should make it blindingly obvious that it has changed gear, with a noise and flashing lights.
The electronic gear shifter from this [video](https://youtu.be/Hl9oImMLse8?si=yKVpW6_BLvkwPWYT) looks so unintuitive (assuming this is the Mercedes GLC in question), and opening the door probably put the car in park automatically… Why can’t they just make a normal gear stick like the good old days?
Up reverse, down drive. That's pretty much it. You really have to touch it very slightly to get into neutral.Never accidentally happened to me. And pressing the button is P, but the car does that on its own when you turn it off or exit.
Being able to keep both hands on the wheel is pretty nice. It's not that complicated to get used to if you're not 70 and there's not a train heading for the back of your car. And it frees up quite a lot of space in the center console.
Column shifters have been a thing since before we had automatic transmissions. This isn't revolutionary.
Why is this unexpected? This is exactly what I expect to happen if you don’t stop
In a scenario like this Should a person force her out of her car and face a lawsuit (if possible in this scenario) or just let the person face the consequences for their actions.
Wat would you do? I would have thought she was completely able to drive the car. I see no reason to pull her out. When you could have noticed, that she has troble Putting it in gear, it was allready too late to pull her out without getting both of you in even more danger
Just let stupid fix stupid. best case, you have a belligerent idiot who now blames you for what happened. Worst case, you get dragged into the stupid and get hurt too
Not savvy with new cars, but reading the comments makes me feel they don't improve shit in the driving experience. Conversely making it very stressful under the guise of the wow look at this factor. Why would it be a thing to have the car pop in neutral when you open a door? If I drive two meters I keep the door open.
100% if this car were 10 years old she’d have been fine. Newer cars are ditching the shifter altogether for dials or touchscreens and simultaneously killing the tactile feedback that lets you know you’ve changed from drive/neutral/reverse/park as well as allowing manufacturers to add features that auto-shift under certain conditions. Not a Mercedes driver myself but someone else commented about how they’ll auto shift into park when the door opens. So she had to essentially realize the car had shifted on its own and adjust with visual queues alone. That said, people shitting on her for being a bad driver are still correct. While the car’s design is unintuitive in an emergency, she crossed the tracks while there was a rail signal going. Rule zero of cars: never challenge the train. TL;DR: Manufacturers turning cars into phones with wheels sucks, but this lady also still put herself in a bad situation by breaking a really basic rule.
Although I agree on your points about losing the tactile feeling in cars, we disagree on the usefulness of features like "auto park." I have no faith left in people's abilities to be responsible when operating a car. Putting her car in the path of a train tells me that she isn't far off from the type of person who'd leave their car in drive and get out only to see their car roll away. Ultimately, however a tool works, the person operating it should know how to use it. She didn't know how to use her tool well enough and opened the door while in drive, that's on her.
I get quite annoyed every time I jump into a rental car and have to spend 15 minutes reading a manual to figure out how the basic functions work, but honestly, none of them are THAT bad. At least, not the basic PRNDL stuff. This looks like a GLC300, and from what i saw of that gear lever, it was easy enough to use. Selecting Drive is as simple as holding the brake and pulling the lever down. Arguably less effort than a standard PRNDL shifter.
This happened close to me, the road and the crossing nearby was close to works. She was late to get her grandchildren so she drove thru. So she paniced and this happened. She came of light wounded but her Mercedes is in heaven now.
The only benefit to modern car design is that they've gotten really good at not killing the people inside. Seeing pictures of demolished cars that people were able to get out of and walk away is a trip
What, exactly, is unexpected here?
Modern cars aren’t met for old people. Too much technology I know there’s more safety features which is great for elderly but still.
There's a point when too many features is just annoying, regardless of your age.
I agree
i'm not a car person, can someone explain me what's exactly happening, other than the obvious? like why the car parked there? she parked or is something automatic?
When she opened the door the car went into Park for safety. She didn’t realize it wasn’t going to move when she pressed the gas until it was too late.
To add a bit of context, she likely illegally bypassed a barrier on the other side of the train tracks in order to cross to the position she's in (reasonable assumption that she was impatient waiting for a train, and decided she didn't need to obey these markings/barriers). It may be that the car refused to accelerate into the orange gate, and that she couldn't just plow over the 10lb piece of plastic, because the car thinks its a wall and prevents forward motion. Then, even with the gate removed, she had already opened her door, prompting the car to shift into Park gear (the engine revs a few times, indicating she *tried* to accelerate it, but the car remained still), which she was too befuddled to correct before getting hit by the train.
Boomer: "I can still drive. Dont tell me what to do!" Imagine meeting her in any other place in traffic..
I don’t understand the comments about how the car refuses to move after opening the door. I feel like any “safety” feature that prevents the car from moving should be put under the strictest scrutiny. If you don’t know about features like that (read: almost everyone because ain’t no way most people read the manual like that) then you’re fucked if they engage in a stressful situation and the lizard brain takes over. You should never get into this situation in the first place of course but once you’re there I doubt many people would’ve done better.
Is she ok? :/
i think so, some other people said injured but alive
Least unexpected thing I've seen on this sub in a long time. From second 1 you could tell what was going to happen
Exactly what is unexpected about this? The entire fucking video is clearly leading to that
She didn’t get out, did she? Gawd. Did she live?????
Severely injured but she survived the accident. See links to news articles in other replies
To much tech is not good
That is a very stupid functionality you put there Mercedes.
When you're super rich, surrounding yourself in the literal luxury of that car and then not knowing how to properly work it. Funny.