What 82 owners told NHTSA about the 2021 Mercedes-benz Gle-class Hybrid

While driving on the highway on three separate occasions the blind spot warning will pop up and show as inoperative, next the active break assist warning flashes as inoperative, and then the entire vehicle shows as inoperative and loses all acceleration and breaks down. This has happened three times. Stayed over night at the dealership they “drove it for 70 miles” it didn’t happen to them. They released the truck back to me saying it was perfectly fine. A day later it happened again while on the highway. Highly unsafe!

NHTSA ODI 11746371

On [XXX], after I purchased the vehicle on [XXX] from Mercedes Benz Midlothian with 57,000+ mile, this occurred. I was driving south on [XXX] near Fairfield VA, when the SUV started popping, with the roaring of the wheels. Then the vehicle started to slow down no matter what I did with the gas pedal. I then pulled over to the grassy area of the [XXX] , and the vehicle completed died - like a brick. The engine would not start up at all. Safety: The issues for me are the facts that I was traveling 1:45 minutes from my home and I was almost smashed in the rear-end by the traffic behind me - due to a vehicle that totally STOPPED on the highway with a speed limit of 70 miles an hours - without any warnings. I traded in a 2014 ML350 with 279,000+ plus miles and had no major issues with the SUV it was a charm. Now I am dealing with a HUGE issues after purchasing a 2021 vehicle [in three days]. I do not know what the problems are - as the dealership has not diagnosis the issues during this writing. There are no reports from the police, dealership, or manufacturers, insurance at this time of writing. The only warning lights that I was grant was the power of the SUV left the vehicle totally. Just ridiculous. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ODI 11620654

Currently unavailable camera view restricted” The message went away but I’ve noticed it appearing more often

NHTSA ODI 11590839

I reported multiple times to Mercedes USA that the vehicle was experiencing electrical issues as I was periodically loosing power and/or control over the vehicle. The vehicle was returned twice to the dealership but the problem always came back pretty much immediately. On the day of the accident, I was driving the vehicle on a straight road. The road was a little bit humid as it has been raining few minutes/hours before but it wasn't raining at the time I was driving. I was maintaining a speed of 55mph (speed limit on this portion of the road). The vehicle started to suddenly move by itself on the right side. A minute later, the vehicle moved a second time on the right without any apparent reason. The third time, the vehicle suddenly accelerated and made a sharp turn to the right. The turn to the right was so sharp that the vehicle made a 180 degrees turn and was projected on the side of the road. The vehicle stopped in a ditch and engine stopped. I wasn't braking or turning the wheel when the vehicle started to act-up. I didn't feel any movement in the steering wheel and I couldn't control the brake or direction. I restarted the engine and the brakes and directions were back up again. I contacted Mercedes who wants to inspect the vehicle but didn't set a date yet. Sheriff arrived on the spot less than a minute after the crash (was driving back home after his shift). He confirmed no collision with another vehicle, no marks of tires on the road, no standing water on the road or any other reason for the crash. No ticket was given to me by the sheriff.

NHTSA ODI 11534284

Many times while driving a warning pops up in the driver interface that the camera view is restricted, including an icon implying that the AEB system is "unavailable." Funny thing is there is never any obstruction of the camera that I can tell. So I told the service rep at the dealer, including showing him a pic of the error message and the repair order just said, "unable to replicate" with nothing done. So unusual that mine is the only Mercedes vehicle that does this! Also emailed corporate through the special purpose link on the website and got no response. I'm sure that Mercedes is working diligently behind the scenes to fix this problem because they value the safety of their customers so highly, but I just thought I would let you know as well.

NHTSA ODI 11508657

Issue-The car brakes aggressively using cruise control (Mercedes Distronic) with no driver intervention. This dangerous condition can cause an accident. Using my advanced cruise control…the issue is my set speed was changed along with acceleration or braking when a traffic sign is misread. I have turned off the only setting controls Traffic Sign Assist & Route Based Speed Assist but there is no change. Example of issue-My car was misreading 80mph as 60 & braking aggressively. .My prior 2020 GLE misread signs less often and did not change the speed setting or brake the vehicle. The Dealer applied all available software updates. After all the updates my car continues to adjust set speed to every misread traffic sign. For example recently I had my speed set at the posted speed of 80 and the car read a sign as 70, changed the 80 to 70, and started braking aggressively. In Idaho there are stacked signs-the upper one reads 80 and below “Trucks 70” so this happens about 50% of the time. The vehicle misreads signs often.

NHTSA ODI 11436351