Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 Incident

All prior narratives have been removed due to character limit. Please see reports 855-8237-(1 and 2) to see prior updates. 9/13/2024 Update to 855-8237-2: MBUSA conducted a scene and vehicle inspection on August 14, 2024, which included a physical examination of the vehicle. The subject vehicle was located in a salvage yard. The subject vehicle was left uncovered, exposing the vehicle to rain and other weather conditions (including heavy rains associated with Tropical Storm Debby). A significant amount of standing water was observed in both the driver and passenger footwells. As a result of this water damage to the subject vehicle, MBUSA was not able to establish a connection to the vehicle system diagnostics, control units, or EDR. A physical inspection of the braking and steering systems was subsequently performed. This inspection did not identify evidence of any steering or braking malfunction and the available information indicates both systems operated as intended at the time of the incident. The dashcam videos provided by the owner show the driver increasing the vehicles speed from 35mph at the start of the video to 46.5mph at the time of the crash. No audible warnings or steering wheel movement were observed in the driver-facing video. When DISTRONIC with Active Steering Assist is active, the vehicle is designed to allow a driver to overrule and suppress the system by depressing the accelerator pedal. Based on the speed increase observed in the provided videos, it suggests that the system was not providing speed control to the subject vehicle prior to the incident. Based on its investigation and review of the videos provided by the vehicle owner, MBUSA has concluded that that the vehicle operated as intended and that DISTRONIC with Active Steering Assist was likely not engaged during the 24-second period captured by the dashcam video recording and when the driver lost consciousness. MBUSA has concluded its investigation into this matter.