New Mercedes S-Class rocks Night View Assist

It’s not too often that we hit up advances in car technology over here but this is just a bit too tasty to pass up. Now in addition to a PCMCIA slot, Mercedes-Benz is premiering their “Night view assist” system on their new, 2007 S-Class series which is said to increase nighttime visibility by up to 125 percent -- without blinding on-coming motorists. It uses infrared light to cast a broad beam ahead of the vehicle and then displays the 8-inch grayscale image on the dashboard LCD. Yeah, we know, what’s the big deal, other cage manufactures have offered these options in the past. But check out the vid over at AutoSpies though, we think it's worth your while.

[Thanks, Donald]

[gosh_d @ Feb 2nd 2006 11:23AM]

so like, how are people realistically expected to drive with this? if you rely on the real view of the road, you'll miss quickly approaching things like those people in the image above. but i doubt they intend for you to just ignore what you see out the windshield and drive purely by that tiny screen.

[Dominic Cordisco @ Feb 2nd 2006 11:26AM]

Now, if it only looked like the Terminator HUD, that'd be cool.

[PodMonkeys @ Feb 2nd 2006 11:30AM]

Thats excellent! All they need now is the rear view, and laser range finders on each corner of the car.

[TIMMAH! @ Feb 2nd 2006 11:30AM]

Yeah seems to me it'd be distracting and a cause for further eye fatigue.

[Mississippi Mudd @ Feb 2nd 2006 11:42AM]

It won't be too long until this gets modded so folks can watch DVDs while they drive. :)

[tblough @ Feb 2nd 2006 12:01PM]

Wonder what it looks like when an oncoming S-class is flooding the area with infrared.

[Sam @ Feb 2nd 2006 12:09PM]

I live in an area with many roads that go through the woods, and the ability to see deer through infrared could be a life saver to many, many people. Once this technology trickles down through to GM/Ford, I'll be the first one to adopt (as if I can afford a Benz)

[Tony @ Feb 2nd 2006 12:10PM]

The oncoming S-class would also be flooding the area with halogen headlamps, hypothetically providing better real-life illumination of said pedestrians.

[strider_mt2k @ Feb 2nd 2006 12:15PM]

It won't be too long until this gets modded so folks can trigger so-equipped traffic lights with those systems. ;)

[brainsARrrrggh @ Feb 2nd 2006 12:15PM]

Anyone else think the driver in the picture should just plow down those zombies?

[T.W.G @ Feb 2nd 2006 12:30PM]

Wow,

Germany realy know how to make cars :-)

Thomas

[JE @ Feb 2nd 2006 12:49PM]

Did anyone see the BBC TV's Top Gear (UK) programme on this "feature" on an S Class?

A reviewer had requested that they test this feature in a mock up to test its efficiveness and the video was leaked and shown on TV. The car launched itself through a tunnel and out through simulated fog on the otherside. THe system which is supposed to break before human reactions kick in failed, and the Merc hit a stationary old banger they used as the computer systems incentive to stop!

It was VERY FUNNY. Lets hope this is a damn good upgrade to the system I saw at the end of last year - or its not worth considering.

They also showed how people standing quite close to the car barely showed up on the LCD, which they reviewed to be far more of a distraction than any real benefit.

I wish I had recorded that TV show, it was priceless!

[Steven @ Apr 9th 2007 2:02PM]

yeah... except, that was another system called the DISTRONIC PLUS, and as a joke, it was turned off. that's why it "crashed", wow.... very funny

[know wht @ Feb 2nd 2006 12:54PM]

you know what would be nice, a heat sensor, to see the mafucking deers, by now I hit 11 of them!!!

[Jaffa @ Feb 2nd 2006 1:07PM]

"up to 125 percent" is so intentionally vague, it includes 0%, and I already have something that increases my nighttime visibility by 0%.

Hmm, I wonder what would happen if a bunch of us stood by the roadside pointing remote controls at the merc drivers and mashing the buttons :)

[Elias G. @ Feb 2nd 2006 1:19PM]

@8:
You mean Xenon HID Lamps?

I saw the new S-Class at the showroom a few weeks ago, at the top of the windshield above the rearview mirror you can see the camera and giant IR illuminator.

The LCD gauge is cool.

-- Elias

[Illphil @ Feb 2nd 2006 1:22PM]

11? damn, i only ran over a cat a few months ago, the fucking thing messed up my fender.. and even the cat made me proud (how great must the feeling be when killing 11 deers ;P)

[misspriss @ Aug 10th 2008 10:31AM]

i do hope you are joking. even though that is nothing to joke about. but, i dont know, lets see, stand in front of me and let me see what kind of damage your body will do to my front.

[know wht @ Feb 2nd 2006 1:37PM]

what can you say drive to the work through the forest... :P That's why i bought van, no deers stnd a chance bitches

[garlin ii @ Feb 2nd 2006 1:55PM]

this is not new at all. cadillac did this with the dts in 2000.

[Rory @ Feb 2nd 2006 2:00PM]

Please stop linking to AutoSpies - they are a garbage site that does nothing but steal material from others and watermark it as if their own, then claim "see it here first."

[Mike @ Feb 2nd 2006 2:40PM]

Damn, fleeing the scene of the crime at night just got a bit easier. No need for headlights... Now if I could just do something about those pesky tail lights from coming on, I'll be set. All stealth-like.

[Chris @ Feb 2nd 2006 3:10PM]

Now if you could get that system to work with out the headlights so you are just running down the highways blacked out, that would be sweet. Nothing would freak someone out like whipping past them on a two lane highway at 2am.

[Mark @ Feb 2nd 2006 3:32PM]

Won't every other car soon on the market with infrared lights blind your camera making the system useless? Or is this only for when you're the only person on the road, at which point you could just use your high beams?

[Miller @ Feb 2nd 2006 3:43PM]

I wonder if I could watch a movie on that.....

[fneu @ Feb 2nd 2006 4:38PM]

Fifth Gear tested this system and it was completely useless; it couldn't see further than the high beams. Hopefully this has been fixed. The fact that this is not projected on the windshield like the Cadillacs is also a huge inconvenient, it must be very distracting having that display, though not as bad as the BMW one which is in the center console. If they're lucky the IR projector will blind modern digital speed cameras which is a reason in itself to get one :)It seems Mercedes uses standard (Near)IR nightvision canera which is somewhat useless in this as it needs a very powerful IR source to see ahead of the high beams. What is needed, is the same as in the Cadillacs a real IR camera, that is a Thermographic camera which is much more appropriate for this use, living obstacles would show up quite clearly, although much more expensive and with lesser resolution.

[srk6b @ Feb 2nd 2006 4:43PM]

#14. The IR lamps are located within the headlight clusters, not above the rear-view mirror. The camera is located over the mirror, though.

#12. Heat energy is IR and therefore the S-Class Night-View system will pick up "mafucking deers" - as you so eloquently put it.

What this system has over other systems is that it is active instead of passive. Passive sytems (BMW, Cadillac) simply read the temperature differences of objects in front of the car and return an image. They tend to produce lo-res images where "hot" objects are just white blobs on the screen. The disadvantage of passive systems is that they can't "see" cold objects.

The M-B active system floods the environment with IR which is reflected off of all objects regardless of their temperature. This enables you too "see" cold objects in the road as well such as rocks or fallen tree limbs. Also, the images rendered are of much higher resolution.

#6,13,20 To my understanding each S-Class "broadcasts" and reads IR of a unique frequency, so on-coming S-Classes don't "blind" each other.

#1 Night View is probably intended to be used as you would use a rearview mirror. You don't stare at it all the time, but you check it periodically to make sure you are aware of your driving environment.

[the other steve jobs @ Feb 2nd 2006 5:07PM]

#22 - What is the bandwidth of the IR cameras used here?

what i mean is - unless there's lasers generating the IR, then its some kind of wideband IR generator and you'll get spill over into other's readers more than likely....

if there are lasers making the IR, then how closely can you space the freqs?

[anon @ Feb 2nd 2006 8:04PM]

I think this is a good step, but until I actually see it in person, I'm going to think it's too distracting. Until they can project the enhanced image directly on top of the real image, I don't think it's going to be that useful. How can you drive with your head buried in the dash? What's the field of view? What about moving obstacles coming from the sides? How would you see traffic signals?

My "dream" solution would involve a head tracking system so the HUD image stays on top of the real image no matter how you are sitting in the seat.

[David T @ Feb 2nd 2006 8:43PM]

#12: you've got several facts confused.

First, the "incident" regarding the new S crashing into an older one has been cleared up. The journalist was fired from the magazine - and it was a completely different system: Distronic, which didn't work because the test area was a completely enclosed metal building: in other words, something you would never see in real life.

Engineers said "it doesn't work here"; journalist said "go ahead anyway". Engineers relented for the sake of the TV cameras, places a plank on the floor so the journalist would stop in time to "simulate" the result. And whammo, journalist didn't feel it and so didn't brake in time. Fired for being dishonest; and I expect the engineers who let the test go on got fired too. This was NOT on BBC Top Gear.

In fact, Top Gear has NEVER tested the new S-class. The second incident was with Night View Assist (this system). And it was FIFTH Gear, not Top Gear.

The person said he couldn't see someone in front of him, outside the range of the normal headlamps, with this turned on, WHILE STATIONARY. Now, according to Mercedes, the IR lamps only turns on at around 10mph (but the IR receiver is on already), and so below that speed, the screen just shows what the headlamps are illuminating. So of course he couldn't see someone who was outside the range of his headlamps - while stationary. The IR doesn't come on til you get moving.

That's it, really. The systems all work. And while HUD would be really cool, has anyone ever seen a HUD covering the entire windscreen, with images at life size? :p I certainly haven't...

[videomagician @ Feb 2nd 2006 9:51PM]

This reminds me of the Enhanced Vision System on A Gulfstream V aircraft. Cool!

http://www.gulfstreamplaneview.com/

[BMWlOvEr @ Feb 3rd 2006 12:15AM]

How come engadget loves to do segments on the Mercedes S-Class, I mean honest to God, how many people in this world can afford a $100k+ Hallmark of Luxury Sedan Car??? Can you bring info about more practical cars that we can actually afford in the near future.

[Farris @ Feb 3rd 2006 9:02AM]

Okay, here's an idea:

What happens if another S-Class comes down the street? ITS IR light will flood the area, and both of their screens will be momentarily blinded.

If you're using it to drive (ie not looking up) and suddenly everything goes white, two S-Classes go down.... and thats a shame.

[Baz @ Feb 3rd 2006 1:46PM]

They sould come out with a video game version/simulation for trainingg to drive only by the infrared camera. You could tint all your windows 100% and be a super criminal

[Dane @ Feb 3rd 2006 4:37PM]

See the thing I don't understand is, sure they won't blind other drivers with cars that don't have those views, but can you imagine how bricght another car with those infrared lights would look on screen. I'm sure whoever was focusing onto the screen would freak out.

[Samuel Lago @ Feb 4th 2006 5:57PM]

eventually this'll be superimposed onto the windshield of the car in a sort of translucent fashion so that glancing at the dashboard will not be nesseasry.