Car speeds along highway at 120 km/h after cruise control fails

A surveillance video provided by Henan traffic police shows a car out of control driving through a toll gate during the highway from Henan to Shaanxi on the night of March 14, 2018.

A driver got the fright of his life on the night of March 14 after his car's cruise control malfunctioned, sending him speeding for an hour along the highway from Henan to Shaanxi.

The driver, surnamed Xue, set the cruise control of his Mercedes Benz C200L to 120 kilometers an hour as he headed towards Chengdu. When Xue tried to switch his car back to manual mode and slow down, the controls did not respond.

With the gears and brakes unresponsive, Xue called Mercedes customer service for help but they were unable to give him a safe and feasible solution, so he called the police.

Local traffic police cleared the highway lanes leading into Shaanxi province and reduced the amount of traffic on the road to give Xue a clear route through the highway toll stations.

After nearly an hour, Xue, who is an amateur racer, decided to take the risk of jumping out of the car. When he unfastened his seat belt and opened the car door slightly, he noticed that the car slowed down. But when he closed the door and fastened his seat belt again, the car started speeding up.

Xue figured that the car door was linked to the car's safety system, which prevents the car running with the doors open. He took off his belt and opened the door again; when the car slowed to 40 km/h he found that the brakes were responsive again, and he was able to pull over.

"I only want to know how the car got out of control," Xue said. "The car company has to find the reasons and solve the problems." His car was towed away after the incident.