Mercedes Promises Enhanced Safety, Improved Fuel Economy

Speaking at a press conference in Leipzig, members of Mercedes' board revealed some plans of the German carmaker, with enhanced safety and improved fuel economy the most important goals in the near future. Basically, Mercedes intends to design new and more advanced technologies that could assist the driver in “keeping the current situation or act autonomously whenever there is a risk of an accident.”

Mercedes says the majority of new safety technologies are based on statistics and accident findings collected since a few years ago, all of them with a clear goal: to prevent and reduce the number of deadly accidents.

"We will not let up in our long-standing quest to make motoring even safer and further reduce the number of road accidents", said Dr Thomas Weber, Daimler AG Board of Management member responsible for Group Research and Development Mercedes-Benz Cars. "We afford and will continue to afford equal importance to safety and climate protection."

The best example that underlines Mercedes' efforts is given by the new E-Class, due to release in spring 2009, which incorporates several advanced safety technologies beside the popular and often mandatory ABS, ESP, Brake Assist or Pre-Safe. For instance, the new model comes with Attention Assist (a new technology especially designed for detecting drowsiness), Adaptive Highbeam Assist and the Pre-Safe brake (similar to Pre-Safe but based on an automatic emergency braking system).

"The new E-Class will be the safest car in this market segment and, at the same time, consume far less fuel than its predecessor thanks to new engines, intelligent energy management and a raft of other measures", Weber stated.