Stuttgart, Germany – Mercedes-Benz will continue its comprehensive commitment to road safety and, at the same time, take further strides forward in its quest to reduce fuel consumption and emissions, according to company executives at a conference to announce a new safety initiative for 2009. The company said the car will become part of the thinking process, with the capability to assist the driver in keeping with the current situation, or to act autonomously whenever there is risk of a crash.

“We will not let up in our long-standing quest to make motoring even safer and further reduce the number of road accidents,” said Dr. Thomas Weber, responsible for Group Research and Development. “We afford and will continue to afford equal importance to safety and climate protection.”

Dr. Weber said that the new E-Class, which will have its world premiere in the spring of 2009, will introduce new assistance systems such as Attention Assist, for detecting driver drowsiness; Adaptive Highbeam Assist; and the Pre-Safe Brake, an automatic emergency braking system. “The new E-Class will be the safest car in this market segment and, at the same time, consume far less fuel than its predecessor, thanks to new engines, intelligent energy management and a raft of other measures,” he said.