Mercedes Active Brake Assist demonstration win a coach! Biglorryblog is in the front seat with his camera...

Here's another take on the Mercedes Active Brake Assist system--this time on a 12m luxury coach where Biglorryblog was sitting in the front seat with his video camera yesterday at the Stuttgart test track. The car in front is travelling along at around 15mph - the coach is on cruise control at top speed on the limiter. At 110m out the forward-looking radar in the Adative Cruise Control picks up the car and warns the driver with a rattling noise (clearly audible on the video clip) and dashboard display. As the driver continues to do nothing (deliberately as part of the demonstration) the system then starts issuing a warning bleeper (which you can also hear) As the distance closes (and believe me we WERE closing fast!) and a collision looks likely, with the driver taking no further action ABA then applies the service brakes in a full emregency stop - which is why the camera dips down. The coach stops (I'm delighted to say) some 10m from the car. And the round of applause is for the driver who steered directly at the car and had the nerve to trust the system without doing the obvious thing - which was to start braking himself!