| NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCESCIENCE28 February 2017The new Mercedes E-Class is dripping with
gadgets. Touch-sensitive pads on the
steering wheel control your ‘infotainment
system’, displays offer customisable
dashboards and you can even choose from
64 colours for your interior lighting on
the f ly (we went for Tron blue). But that’s
not what makes this car interesting.
This Mercedes cares about you, a lot.
Not only does it want you to get from A
to B safely, but it wants to help you get there
with minimal effort. In fact, if we were to
give the car a name, we’d call it Alfred.
This is just the net effect of Mercedes’s
‘Intelligent Drive’ system, which is the
name given to the car’s safety and assistance
features. On the road, 360° cameras and
radar keep a watchful eye. These sensors
also enable the car to take care of the driving
on a motorway, though you need to keep
your hands on the wheel at all times.
Get into traffic and it’ll free you of the
mind-numbing business of stopping and
starting, as the E-Class’s sensors keep an
eye on the gap ahead.
So far, so familiar. But the E-Class has
some new tricks in its catalogue. If it sensesTHE FAST TRA C K
an accident is imminent, the car’s Pre-Safe
features leap to your aid. Depending on
where it sees the crash coming from, the car
will inf late the seat to push you away from
the impact zone. Just before impact, it’ll play
some pink noise. This sound triggers your
ears’ defensive ref lex, shielding your inner
ear from sounds over 100dB, seconds before
the potentially deafening noise of a crash.
Of course, we didn’t get to see if this works,
but it’s nice to know it’s there.Daniel Bennett tests two of this year’s smartest cars to find out
how technology is shaping our future drivesMERCEDES
E-CLASSthe look on people’s faces as the car parks
itself. All you have to do is keep an eye
on your surroundings and a finger on
your phone’s touchscreen to keep
the car moving.Call me Godzilla
While the E-Class uses tech to stop
you squealing, Nissan’s 2017 Skyline
GT-R Prestige, affectionately dubbed
‘Godzilla’, uses tech to make you scream.
Each of the wheels is watched by a CPU
that reads the connection between the
tyre and the road, delivering more or less
power where needed to provide traction.
Pair this with a new gearbox that changes
gears faster than you can, and you get
a car that approximates what it’s like to
be fired out of a catapult.
Outside of Tesla Model S 90D,
the only other cars that can manage this
kind of acceleration will need you to take
a mortgage out to even look at them. It’s
a feat that’s been achieved through sheer
attention to detail. Each engine is hand-
assembled by one of four “takumi” –
master craftsmen certified to build
GT-R engines. This might not sound
high-tech, but these engineers work in
the margins of microns (one millionth
of a metre). They’ve even designed the
car to minimise bad road noise while
pumping in good engine noise through
the speakers to make it feel faster.
Obviously, to actually get your
money’s worth out of a GT-R, you’ll
need to head to a track. With a Nismo
edition, the sat-nav will pick up your
location and switch your display to a map
of the track, complete with your sector
times and telemetry. You can record
this data and, back at home, plug it into
your PlayStation 3 to virtually race
yourself on Gran Turismo 6, just like F1
drivers do.
Crucially, on the track, all this
technology metaphorically falls away,
giving you a drive that’s friendly and
scary all at once.When you finally reach your destination,
Alfred kindly uses its sensor array to park
itself. You can sit comfortably in the driver
seat while the car completes the manoeuvre,
or jump out, fire up Mercedes Benz’s
Parking Pilot system on the app and watchNEWSPRESSTHE E-CLASS USES TECH
TO STOP YOU SQUEALING;
THE GODZILLA USES IT TO
MAKE YOU SCREAM
26 February 2017