Mercedes develop technology to warn other drivers about potholes in the road
Have you ever dreamed of a sat nav for speed bumps or to plan your route based on potholes? Your wish might have just come true.
The brains at Mercedes-Benz have developed a new technology that alerts other drivers about humps and dips in the road so you can steer your car more smoothly.
“Look-out, pothole!”
The system uses an audible alarm to alert drivers about the road ahead – Mercedes owners can expect to hear “Look-out, pothole!” or “Attention, speed bump”, as they approach an uneven surface.
A smart control unit on the chassis detects sudden compressions or rebounds in suspension before sending the information to the Mercedes-Benz Cloud.
Although the Car-to-X communication system relies on a car to hit a pothole, or speed bump, in the first place, the technology could save motorists bundles of cash in suspension related repairs.
According to mechanical experts Kwik Fit, pothole damage costs UK motorists over £1.2 billion every year. Average repair costs for mangled tyres, wheels and suspension comes in at around £115 a time.
During the first three months in 2021, the RAC attended the equivalent of 52 drivers a day who had broken down as a result of pothole damage, a staggering 4,694 drivers in total.
The breakdown experts have even developed a Pothole Index, an indicator about just how likely you are to break down as a result of hitting a pothole. It suggests that drivers were nearly one-and-a-half times more likely to fall foul of a dip in the road in 2021 than back in 2006.
Mercedes’ pothole sharing technology will be available on all new S-Class and EQS models and as an option on the latest C-Class.
A further three million cars built by Mercedes-Benz from 2016 onwards, can also receive the warning information. However, all drivers will need an active Mercedez me subscription.
Weather warnings from the Cloud
It’s not just uneven road surfaces that the Car-to-X system is privy to. Everything from cross winds to reduced visibility because of fog can be shared to the cloud for a real-time update on driving conditions.
One Mercedes driver might receive a heavy rain warning in a particular location as a direct result of another driver turning their wipers to their fastest setting. The Car-to-X system will even update drivers on broken-down vehicles, scenes of accidents and roadworks.
If you’re worried about driving in adverse weather conditions, why not try our top tips for driving in a thunderstorm?
