According to Ulrich Mellinghoff, head of Safety Research & Development at Mercedes-Benz, the cars carrying the Three-Pointed Star will be premierly fitted, in the coming years, with an ultra-hightech system that allows the car to swerve in order to avoid potential obstacles, such as pedestrians.
He further explained that in 80 percent of the fatalities, pedestrians hardly hit a mere 20 percent of a car's frontal area. These numbers clearly make the ingenious auto-steering system to look more fesable and less SF. Moreover, it shows just how little a car must veer in order to prevent a tragedy. The technology will be available in Mercedes-Benz models within the next five years. We predict it could be premiered on the future S-Klasse (W 222), prone to be unveiled in 2013.
However, Mellinghoff added the fact that the auto-swerve system won't be able to substitute the human being behind the steering wheel;it will secondate him/her and will only act in cases of extreme severity, when a fatal collision is almost imminent.
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