Lain

So I found out if you are moving and you open the drivers door the E Brake goes one.

Any way to disable this either through the menu (I couldn't find it) or the dealership?

This seems like a very dangerous feature. I don't know if it does it at high speeds but it definitely does it at slow speeds.

Not in my TTS but in other cars I know in the past I've;
- had to open my door while driving because the seat belt was caught in it
- a coat was caught in it
- the door wasn't' fully closed so you have to open it a bit to pull it shut
- I've driven in my drive way with the drivers door open when pulling in my garage while cleaning or working on the car.
- Opened drivers too to check a curd while pulling into a parking spot.


I know it does it at slow speeds but if you are driving on the highway and you find your coat is in the door so you just want to open it quick to pull it inside, what happens? Does the e-brake come on? Can you imagine when this will do to your car and the accident it would cause.


Seems like a very dangerous feature with little benefit.

Huey52

Another litigation risk-averse thing. You can't really blame manufacturers as they get sued constantly by idiots. I've been a juror on such cases, one time acquitting VW.

Can_Quattro

Yes, this is part of the protection against the kind of problem Chrysler has currently with law suits due to their confusing transmissions and resultant deaths, including the Star Trek actor.
Now that you are aware of it you will not find it intrusive.
It will not lock the brakes at speed if you pop open the door for some reason.
Functions under 5 k or something if I recall.

Lain

Ah perfect. I didn't want to test it at high speed obviously but I could see it being super dangerous. But if it's only 5km than not much risk, just more of an annoyance.

Jun Hong

I thought it only turned on the parking brake when it was in park, this does indeed sound dangerous.

Huey52

Well, those pesky lawyers figured at low speed with the driver's door open it was prudent to apply the e-brake. Lesser of evils.

btw: in the Boston area this week a mother let her 7-year old start the car for her (apparently as self-confessed not the first time) and put it in reverse running over her sibling. Auto e-brake might have avoided same. The lawyers have to cater to the idiots among us!

Tailwagger

Personally, I think its a good idea. True story...

A day or two after I first picked up the AMG 45, I went back to the dealership to get the car inspected and while there I bought one of the rubber mats for the rear area. The parts guy told me he'd drop it off in to the guys doing the inspection and they'd just install it. Got my car back, started to head home, when I thought... let me just check if they remembered the mat. So I pull into a parking spot, push the lever forward putting into park with car still running as I just want to pop the rear hatch to look. I open the door get out out of the car and nearly got run over. Jumped in hit the brake before backing into another brand new Mercedes. How could I be such an idiot? Cause as you can see below, pushing the lever fully forward just puts the car reverse. THERE IS NO PARK POSITION, you have to press a button.



And the AMG isn't the only one screwing around... NHTSA: People Can't Figure Out How to Shift Fiat Chryslers Into Park

Having had the car for only a day and not being used to the shifter, I just pushed the lever forward as I've done for in AT equipped cars for the last 30+ years. Hence, not park, reverse. Haven't done it since, (though it took about a month before I stopped pushing the lever forward before I turned the car off) but the one of the problems with all these new styles of transmission control is that most of us drive more than one car and its easy to get confused, especially when the car is new to you. Now when I get in the wifes A3, I tend not to put into P, as the when you shut the Merc off it goes to P automatically. Fortunately, the Audi dings at me when I try to exit. Seems utterly idiotic to me that after all 50 years of ATs on the floor all having the same shift pattern, some of these geniuses in the design departments think they have a better idea. Jackasses. Whats next, the left pedal goes and the right brakes? Turn the steering wheel left and the car goes right? Given that experience, I think that opening the door sets the parking brake when the engines running is a damn fine idea.

the_duke

The ZF8HP is what happened. This transmission is in many, many different vehicles. It no longer has any sort of linkage like all previous transmissions have. Everything is electronically/hydraulically controlled. Hence a shifter that works differently. Different manufacturers have dealt with the problem in different ways. I think the Audi parking brake solution is probably the best and safest solution. Truthfully it's not a bad safety feature regardless of what kind of shifter the car has.

I will say that the park button would take some getting used to. The shifter in my A8 was pretty easy to adjust to. My 67 year old father picked up my car when I bought it and delivered it to me. He said the shifter was a little strange but he didn't have much of an issue either. Audi did a pretty good job of making it intuitive. Of course they could have simply used a standard movement shifter but that wouldn't be as elegant in my opinion.

Tailwagger

Perhaps. I haven't yet had the pleasure of the ZF. For the record, the AMG is a 7 speed DCT, not a ZF AT. IMO, the genie was out of the bottle once ATs went beyond 3 or 4 forward speed which ended the tradition of L, 2, 3, D shifting on the floor. In the case of the Chrysler fiasco, the problem seems to be more of a tactile one than an actual interface change. It and the A8 layout seem perfectly logical to me and not much of a psychological burden. The AMG alteration however is, IMO, just plain idiotic. The BMW AT shifter, indeed attached to a ZF, follows suit with a park button as well. One other variation is that the AMG automatically sets the e-brake when the park button is pressed or the engine is turned off; not sure if BMW does the same or has its own variant behavior. The A3, IIRC, been a while since I've driven it, doesn't. Park and the e-brake are independent.

As someone who routinely owns vehicles produced by a wide variety of manufacturers, it would be nice to see a reliable set of standards across brands for this and other common operations. Pity the driver who actually comes to rely on the Audi e-brake behavior, if when their car is in for service, and after a long day on the job, they pull into the driveway and while the garage door is opening, as is their habit, hop out of their spouse's running Honda to get the evening mail. Admittedly unlikely, but every year we hand out Darwin awards to the recently departed for stupidity that isn't too far beyond such a scenario.

Lain

Uh, no park on the shifter. That would take some getting use to, I would not like going to the top and being in reverse.
I see the reason they would have an auto e-brake on that.

I personally would still like to have "control". I'm not going to rely on the e-brake to automatically come on, I still put it on manually every time I park, especially since I drive many other vehicles with normal parking brakes. Need to keep putting it on to keep the habit for the other vehicles.

I guess if it saves lives it's good, I can't really complain about that.

Only 500km away from my 1500km break in