The revamped 2018 Mercedes-Benz S-Class is set to debut at the Shanghai Auto Show. The updated flagship offers a new and more sophisticated Intelligent Drive system that moves the car a step closer to autonomous capability. Key enhancements come in its Active Distance Assist Distronic and Active Steering Assist capabilities.
“The new S-Class raises Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive to the next level,” says Michael Hafner, who heads automated driving and active safety at Mercedes‑Benz. “We are approaching the goal of automated driving more purposefully and faster than many people suspect. From the autumn, the new S‑Class will be able to support its driver considerably better than all systems which have been available to date.”
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Mercedes says the new S-Class can maintain safer following distances in traffic, provide more effective supplemental steering responses and automatically adjust its speed in when cornering or approaching things like junctions, toll booths or turnoffs. These improvements result from the use of upgraded camera and radar systems that provide a superior view of the road and traffic ahead as well as by integrating on-board mapping and navigation data to better calculate the vehicle’s responses.
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The entire Intelligent Drive tech suite–which also includes active assists for lane changing, speed limits, braking, emergency stops, evasive steering, blind spot and traffic sign monitoring and lane keeping–has been polished to make these aids more user-friendly. In addition to expanding its scope to include M-B’s active parking assist feature already offered in the E-Class, the new S-Class also will gain a new Car-to-X communication capability that integrates with the car’s Comand telematics package.
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