Mercedes-Benz plans to be the first carmaker to introduce a Car-to-X automated vehicle-to-vehicle communications system which scans the road ahead, alerting drivers to potential hazards.
The first cars in the premium manufacturer’s range will be equipped with the technology from this year, said Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart. The system uses mobile phone technology to send warnings to all X-enabled cars.
An alert signal highlights in good time dangerous situations such as road accidents and wrong-way drivers on the motorway. The location is shown on a dashboard map and the driver can decide what action to take.
More sophisticated future versions will be able the car to take evading action on its own if the driver is distracted.
The Mercedes-Benz system uses a so-called Digital-Drive-Style-App which turns the car into a transmitter and receiver of information via a cloud computing database where the information is stored.
On-board sensors also enable a X-fitted car to take action automatically such as altering suspension settings and power distribution to the wheels when roads are icy or during heavy rain.