Advertisement feature from Mercedes-Benz

Advanced safety technology is giving employers the chance to offer greater protection than ever before to company car drivers. As new Government figures reveal the first rise in road accident casualties for 18 years, Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive offers a whole host of safety systems that aims to make driving safer.

The Intelligent Light System, for example, improves a driver’s view of the road ahead to reduce the higher risks associated with driving in the dark.

Clever technology differentiates between weather and driving conditions and adapts the brightness and beam of lights to ensure optimum illumination. The five functions include cornering light, which illuminates the area to the side of the lane ahead when the driver indicates or turns the steering wheel, and motorway mode which offers up to 60% more visibility.

Helping to protect drivers and their cars at lower speeds is Active Parking Assist* which assesses suitable spaces and parallel parks virtually by itself – all the driver has to do is operate the accelerator and brake pedals.

Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive also incorporates Collision Prevention Assist, a radar-based warning system designed to combat one of the most common types of collision: driving into the back of the car in front. The entire range of Mercedes-Benz vehicles have, fitted as standard, both an audible alert if the car gets too close to the vehicle in front, plus a visual red warning triangle alert on the dashboard.

Fleets also benefit from the option of Distronic Plus, a radar-based cruise control system which adjusts the car’s speed in order to maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front. If the gap shortens too much, it issues both visual and acoustic warnings. It can even brake automatically, if that’s what it takes to avoid a collision.

Attention Assist plays an important role in preventing collisions by analysing how a driver acts and steers in the early miles of a trip to produce a benchmark measurement against which fatigue-related changes in driving style can be identified. If it calculates that the driver is flagging, it sounds a warning alarm and flashes up a coffee cup symbol on the dashboard: it’s time to take a break.

For more insight visit FleetWise. It’s a new programme packed with best practice tips, designed specifically to help you with the day-to-day running of your company fleet, and brought to you by Mercedes-Benz in partnership with Fleet News.

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* Model Dependant