Mercedes-Benz wins “Best of What’s New” car Award
Popular Science Honors the 2007 S-Class With Top Automotive Award
Mercedes-Benz garnered the automotive “Best of What’s New” award today from Popular Science, the oldest and best-known science and technology magazine in the U.S. The all-new Mercedes-Benz 2007 S-Class sedan is the grand award winner for cars, one of 12 categories covering 100 winners.
Mark Jannot, editor-in-chief of Popular Science, said, “Best of What’s New is the ultimate Popular Science accolade, representing a year’s worth of work evaluating thousands of products. These awards honor innovations that not only influence the way we live today, but that also change the way we think about the future.”
Each year, the editors of Popular Science review thousands of new products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year – breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories. The winners – the Best of What’s New – are awarded inclusion in the much-anticipated December issue of Popular Science, the most widely read issue of the year since the debut of Best of What’s New in 1987. Best of What’s New awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 12 categories: Auto Tech, Aviation & Space, Cars, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets, General Innovation, Home Entertainment, Home Tech, Personal Health, Photography and Recreation.
The Mercedes-Benz Flagship
The successor to a long line of premium luxury vehicles, the 2007 S-Class sedan will arrive in the U.S. in early 2006 with a significantly evolved design and a new-generation 5.5-liter V8 engine delivering 382 horsepower. The “S” designation has long been used to identify top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benz cars, and the S-Class has embodied the brand’s flagship role for more than five decades. The S-Class is a technological showcase that has pioneered significant safety and comfort features for the entire auto industry, including the first ABS anti-lock brakes, the first ESP stability control and the first PRE-SAFE system.
New Distronic Plus Helps in Stop-and-Go Traffic
The well-known Distronic cruise control feature that maintains a pre-set distance behind the vehicle ahead is replaced by an optional “Distronic Plus” system. Integrated with the latest PRE-SAFE, the radar-based system operates at nearly all speeds up to 125 mph and can be especially helpful in stop-and-go traffic.
Brake Assist Plus Can Reduce Rear Collisions by 75 Percent
Making its debut on the new S-Class, an optional enhanced version of Mercedes-Benz Brake Assist not only supplies full-power braking in emergency braking situations as soon as the driver applies the brake pedal, but also monitors the distance to the vehicle ahead and adjusts brake pressure if the driver doesn’t brake hard enough. While conventional Brake Assist is only triggered by the driver’s reflex reaction on the brake pedal, Brake Assist Plus also considers the closing speed of the vehicle ahead based on radar signals from Distronic Plus. In tests conducted by Mercedes researchers using 300 drivers, the new integrated system reduced rear collisions in heavy traffic by 75 percent.
Infra-Red Vision Increases Night Visibility
Another innovative technology making its debut on the 2007 S-Class is Night View Assist, a new option that can extend the driver’s ability to see the road ahead to nearly 500 feet. An industry first, and in contrast to other passive systems, this active system bathes the road ahead with infra-red light from two projectors mounted in the headlight assemblies. An infra-red camera discreetly mounted in the windshield receives the reflected images and displays them on a high-resolution instrument cluster screen.