A young boy climbed into a brand new Mercedes at the Paris Motor Show, found reverse and backed it straight into a wall.
The car was not supposed to go anywhere.
It happened on the Mercedes-Benz stand at the Mondial de l’Auto on Saturday.
The boy got into the driver’s seat of the electric Mercedes VLE, a luxury multi-purpose vehicle, with a friend alongside him.
He appeared to work the controls. The MPV started, rolled backwards and hit the stand’s structure, with both children still inside.
Staff looked on, stunned. Officials stressed that no visitors were hurt.
Show cars aren’t meant to move
Manufacturers usually set up display models so the systems work but the car can’t be driven.
Visitors sit in them, press buttons and picture a life with more legroom. That’s the whole point.
This one missed the memo.
Mercedes-Benz France has opened an investigation into how the VLE started at all.
“For now we have no certainty, and we are continuing our internal investigations,” a spokesperson said, as reported by Creatorzine.
A slightly dented VLE quietly leaves the show
The company confirmed the car took slight damage and went off for repairs.
The stand also took a knock, and organisers rearranged it.
By Sunday, the final day of the show, the VLE had vanished from the display entirely.
Mercedes still hasn’t explained how a child managed to select reverse.
Why It Matters
Motor show stands work like content sets now.
Brands design them so visitors climb in, film themselves and post the results, and that openness only works if the car stays exactly where it is.
When a child can turn a static prop into a moving vehicle, every brand running a hands-on display has a question to answer before the next show.
Car makers have spent recent years swapping velvet ropes for open doors as traditional motor shows fight for attention.
Saturday was the downside of that.
What Mercedes does next
The internal investigation continues, and whatever it finds, the next VLE on a show floor will probably be much harder to start.
Somewhere in Paris, a small boy already knows exactly how he did it.
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