Mercedes Benz to prevent wrong way driving
We talk on this blog about new technologies all the time and we tend to focus on green technologies, however we’ve also been known to talk quite a bit about the up and coming features and safety systems that the various car-makers are working on and implementing into their vehicles. Today we’ll be talking about the latest such technology from Mercedes-Benz.
The German carmaker has revealed its latest driver assistance program meant to prevent drivers from unintentionally driving the wrong way down major streets.
This program is part of the new Mercedes-Benz traffic sign assistance system, and it recognizes ‘no entry’ signs on the road and issue both audio and visual alerts to the driver when it detect them heading toward a roadway in the wrong direction.
This might not seem like that much of an important feature to have, but the safety-conscious car maker says that over the past three months in Germany, more than 25 people have died in collisions with vehicles traveling the wrong way.
How does the system identify the ‘no entry’ signs? Well there’s a camera on the inside of the windscreen which does that and then sends the information to the on-board computer for comparison. The computer will then detect if the vehicle is about to pass the identified signs and will warn the driver with three loud beeps and a red ‘no-entry’ symbol on the driver display.
This traffic sign assistance system will also detect and display speed limit signs, no-overtaking signs as well as the signs that indicate the end of those particular zones – all of which could come in very handy at various points during a trip, when the driver is getting tired.
The system has been designed to be primarily used in Germany, but Mercedes-Benz will be looking into using it in other countries in the future.
