[am1m]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

It's a well published example of a mega corporation getting penalised for wrong business practices.

Originally Posted by v1p3r

Please read up on the case again. Scalding and third degree burns means the coffee was unfit for human consumption.

Wow, thanks for clarifying. In my mind too (and probably for an entire generation!) that particular case (which I too didn't read into in detail till now beyond the sensationalist, misleading headlines) became the reason for lazy and ignorant generalizations like "Americans are silly" or "they file lawsuits for everything". Should have realized reality is far more nuanced. Over time I've come to realize the advantages to actually having a system where an ordinary person can take on a mega corp and have a chance of getting justice. That's worth the occasional frivolous lawsuit IMHO. (And good to have my facts set straight on this particular case as well.)

[vasanthn21]

I have had the misfortune of the tip of my finger being stuck between the door and the car when it was being closed, so speaking from experience - Since the car did not have auto close/soft close feature, the door did not close completely, and I was able to pull my hand out, with some damage.
However, if the door had auto close feature (without anti-pinch), when I tried to remove my finger, it wouldn't have come out as the soft close/auto close would detect that the door is not closed, and it would try to close it with an electric motor; all with my finger still being stuck there, as I am not able to pull it out.
Please bear in mind that, all this happens in fractions of a second. Having experienced this first hand, I agree with the person suing Benz. Unless it has anti-pich feature that works flawlessly, it can end up rendering a portion of the finger useless (albeit accidentally)!

It is a completely different debate if one wants to discuss if we actually need such a feature?

[arijitkanrar]

Originally Posted by Akshay1234

This is a bit ridiculous if you ask me, the soft close in these cars activates when there is quite a small gap remaining. Its really not easy to stick ones finger in or anything else for that matter.

I think the point being made is that the finger is present before the door closes partially.
If someone sticks their finger in the gap and then complains that the car crushed their finger, they seriously need to get their heads examined.
But if the car takes a deliberate action to close the door completely when it was partially closed by accident, then MB needs to have good look at how it has implemented this feature.
The other worrying aspect is that given how narrow the gap is when the door closes partially, someone may not even be able to remove their stuck finger. The car then goes in for the kill

[DudeWithaFiat]

Originally Posted by gkveda

Do we really need an automated process for those which requires zero effort and just hand or leg movement?

The 'Trickle-Down' effect makes every new feature of premium cars trickle down to common, everyday cars in a few years, forcing the luxury car manufacturers to come up with newer, flashy features.

Sad that in this case, the 'cutting-edge' technology became too literal for this GLE owner

[Indian2003]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

When we put something down in social media, broadcasting to the world, we should make at least an iota of effort to check

I did not pull this news off Whatsapp and forward. The law suit is not fake news but something that happened in real life. I always check if what I post is fake or not but I dont go in depth for small details.

In most states in the US there is money to be made in cases like this. Lawyers dont take any fees from clients but take a juice cut from the compensation that is awarded.

No cure, no pay.
That must be why there are many such cases there.

[PrasunBannerjee]

I can feel the pain. I had two incidents.

Incident - 1: I was in class 4. I was resting my hand on B Pillar of a Tata Sumo (all doors open) looking elsewhere when someone sat in second row and ignorantly closed the door. Three of my fingers came in it. I'm glad cars back then had humongous panel gaps, else bones would have crushed to anything. Definitely painful for some time to follow.

Incident - 2: Not so lucky with panel gaps this time as it was a consistent, well made car. Two years after the first incident. Similar thing happened, was resting my hand on B-Pillar. this time with a Ford Mondeo, pinky finger got crushed in it.

Now I feel nostalgic about the incident 2, for it happened with such a rare car in India.

Negligence can happen anytime or with anyone. I see some comments of forum members, saying the owners to be more alert. Point is, when these happened to me, I was literally a kid. As adults we become ignorant at times, how can we expect it from kids. I'm happy something like this came up, so automakers can focus on this aspect of soft closing doors.

IIRC, foreign cars wherever any additional space qualifies as a 'trunk' needs to have a latch from inside to avoid being kidnapped. Its present even in Honda Ridge and Rivian's small side compartments. That mandate also came to existence after a similar lawsuit when someone got abducted in a car trunk.

[venkyhere]

This is a typical folly of 'open loop control'.

Any auto-close mechanism - whether window glass or door or even a toilet seat, HAS to backoff if it meets 'higher than normal load' - usually the current passing through the motor goes up, if there is any resistance to the rotation of the shaft, when the load is higher than what it is originally expected to be. In this case, it could have stopped after pinching the finger (instead of continuing to saw it off) , because for sure, the motor would have seen a higher load and as a corollary, a higher load current.

It's not rocket science to monitor the current getting drawn. This is how many 'auto' movement things work - the action is backed off, if there is an obstacle, sensed via load current increase. It doesn't need something like an IR sensor or anything like that.

All this, assuming that the motor used is regular DC motor (brushed or brushless) and not a stepper motor. If a stepper motor was used to implement the auto-close, well that's a bad choice.

So, irrespective of whether Americans are stupid (or not) and overtly rely on their 'lawsuit culture' to cover for their stupidity by encouraging equipment manufacturers to make doubly sure nothing untoward happens, this is simply a case of some designer 'overlooking the possibility of a stuck finger'

How can a finger get stuck if someone is trying to close a door ? well someone carelessly closing a door whilst another person's finger is in the way.

[Sebring]

Terrible that this happened. I find soft-close doors a useless feature. Wasn't comfortable when using it. I like to slam it shut and drive with a feeling that all is well. Else, in the rarest case, what if the car has not closed the door at all - due to some malfunction? And the Merc/BMW are quite the fastest cars around, so double reason to worry.

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by howler

Yup I stand corrected here , the details do change my perspective.

Originally Posted by am1m

Wow, thanks for clarifying.

Gotta love this forum. Personally, I had the same journey when I first researched this. From 'stupid Americans' to 'wow' in the span of an hour or so was quite something.

I must confess that soft close doors, though ridiculous and completely useless, are one of my favourite features on luxury cars. Alongside sunroofs in India.

[Pontiac]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Don't think its frivolous. Its not like he shut the door on his thumb. The car closed the door. Even the humble VW Atlas I am renting which has remote close on the rear hatch, it stops shutting the hatch if there is a minor pressure applied, so avoid such scenarios.

Having no load sensing seems to be a fail

There is a difference between soft close and auto close in how they work. Even for power closing rear hatch, once it latches to the first latch, there is no going back. The second mechanism pulls it in as it needs sufficient pressure to apply against all the rubber bushings to make it waterproof. One can stick his finger and get it injured if it is after it has latched on to the first latch.

Think of soft close as the second mechanism that pulls in with sufficient pressure to close to make it sound and waterproof.

There are cars on with auto closing doors on the other hand like the Maybach or the EQS that works like the power closing rear hatch of cars. Once it senses obstruction, it retracts.

[naveen.raju]

Wonder what happens when your hand gets trapped on the Velar and 2022 S class door handles? Same case with Mustang Mach E rear doors which has a weird opening mechanism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHuJVQgPI5c

[arvind71181]

OT: The quick details (5 min) of the McD case, for those interested.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNWh6Kw3ejQ

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

Please read up on the case again. Scalding and third degree burns means the coffee was unfit for human consumption. The lady was 80.

Thanks for pointing this out. I watched the video that was shared further below and was enlightened.

[drgeorgeroy]

Feeling so bad for the owner. Probably would have lived his life with perfectly fine fingers if he had just gone for a car with regular doors. Soft close doors are just pointless. Are we really getting that lazy? I wonder what the course of humanity is set into. Everything is heading towards automation. Even driving. I mean what's the whole point of owning a car if you can't even be bothered to drive it. Basically we are going to regress into beings with complete loss of cognitive ability , dexterity and motor skills, and AI will evolve to do all of that for us.

[pratyushpks]

Originally Posted by saikarthik

I feel sorry for the incident and also genuinely accept the issue. This is somewhat a similar case to the anti-pinch on power windows and sunroof requirement which can be quite dangerous for kids and pets. It is good for Mercedes to include some load sensing safety features.

I don't agree with it. Since 100 years nobody got their fingers pinched in doors or bonnet?
The soft close doesn't mean its an automatic door. Its just a fault or doing of the person to extort money.
Car windows are used for through hand, but doors are a different category.
I wonder that person will even sue the toilet seat maker if he gets his finger or private part get pinched someday due to his own doing.