New Safety Features in Mercedes-Benz Trucks: 10 Questions Answered
Safety features in Mercedes-Benz trucks have been constantly evolving. This has been possible thanks to the rigorous R&D from the German company to improve the safety of not only the truck drivers but also people around these gigantic machines traversing the roads. Now, there is a bunch of new safety tech that has been implemented in the Mercedes-Benz Trucks. The following information and 10 questions regarding the same will shed more light on the matter.
The new Connected Traffic Warnings function can help improve road safety by detecting and passing on hazard warnings. If the service is available in the vehicle, Mercedes-Benz truck drivers receive current traffic events on the vehicle’s digital map or as a pop-up window in the cockpit. In addition, there are acoustic warnings ten seconds before the respective event. The module can warn of various types of danger, including accidents, fog, heavy rain, roadworks, wrong-way drivers, and slippery roads.
Stefan Engelen, Development Engineer in advanced engineering at Daimler Truck and responsible for the development of connectivity applications, answers ten questions about the new function.
Also read: Germany Approves Mercedes-Benz for 95 km/h Level 3 Self-Driving
ArrayBased on internal signals, our service can automatically detect hazardous situations in the vehicle, such as an accident for example, and then proceeds to send this information to the Connected Traffic Warnings Cloud. This then distributes the hazard warnings to any vehicles driving in the vicinity and that are able to receive the information about the event. The hazard warning is displayed on the navigation map in the vehicle and, if the hazard is located on the current route, the driver is also alerted by a warning message in the instrument cluster and an acoustic voice message. As an additional data source, warning messages are exchanged with third-party providers, such as other vehicle manufacturers, infrastructure operators, or road construction companies.
1. What exactly does “Connected Traffic Warnings” entail?
Connected Traffic Warnings is a feature that is available in our new trucks via the TruckLive service. Vehicles, connected via cloud or corresponding infrastructure operators, such as the Autobahn GmbH in Germany, can warn each other of hazardous situations on the current route. This works even if they are not yet in the driver’s field of vision (e.g. behind a bend, on the crest of a hill, or in fog).2. How does Connected Traffic Warnings work?
3. What prerequisites must be satisfied?
To use this feature, the customer needs an Actros with the new Multimedia Cockpit Interactive 2 with navigation service and an active TruckLive contract. The hazard warning is exchanged between the vehicle and the Connected Traffic Warnings Cloud via our telematics platform, using a mobile connection.4. For which hazardous situations is the system suitable?
The system currently warns of the following hazardous situations:- Accident
- Breakdown
- Roadworks
- Danger spot
- Emergency braking
- Wrong-way drivers (self-warning/external-warning)
- Heavy rain
- Slippery roads
- Fog