Following on from last week’s post ‘Oi! Mind That Mercedes Biglorryblog!‘and thanks, once again, to Biglorryblog, Tachoblog can bring you a couple more clips showing Mercedes safety technology.

The first is another view of the Mercedes Active Brake Assist system, but this time with a (almost) driver’s eye view, with Biglorryblog sitting in the front seat of a 12m luxury coach with his video camera at the Stuttgart test track.

The car in front is travelling along at around 15mph but the coach is on cruise control at top speed on the limiter!  At 110m out the forward-looking radar in Adative Cruise Control ‘sees’ the car and warns the driver with a rattling noise (clearly audible on the video clip) and dashboard display.  As the driver continues to do nothing (remember he is demonstrating the system) the system then starts issuing a warning bleep.  As the distance closes (and BLB says they were ‘closing fast!’) and a collision looks likely, with the driver taking no further action ABA then applies the service brakes in a full emergency stop – which is why the camera dips down. The coach stops ends up stopping 10m from the car. And the round of applause is for the driver who steered directly at the car and had the nerve to trust the system without doing the obvious thing – which was to start braking himself!

Click below to see why Electronic Stability Controlis such a good thing…

Next up we have an Actros artic negotiating the industry standard ‘Double-S’ stability manoeuvre at the same Stuttgart test track – but without its Electronic Stability Control connected.  As you can see those stability outriggers are definitely needed!

And finally, the same truck does the same thing, but this time with the ESC on.