Just another afternoon in Soho: There are many tourists in the narrow streets of the popular shopping district. Some use the bicycles that can be rented everywhere in the city – also to escape the bustling Oxford Street, with its cars, buses and taxis. But it still gets a bit tight for space at one corner, because the cyclists, who are unfamiliar with the area, want to turn off – directly into a one-way street. An oncoming car just manages to brake and luckily nothing happens. From across the street, a market stall vendor comments: “It's not the first time I've seen something like that here.
These incidents, termed “near-accidents”, almost never appear in any statistics. They are not even recorded by the police or other authorities. This means that there is a lack of reliable information that could lead to clear safety precautions, such as traffic lights, signs or bollards. But the data do exist: in Mercedes-Benz vehicles. The information from the Driving Assistance package, including PRE SAFE PLUS, Active Steering Assist, Active Lane Keeping Assist, Blind Spot Assist or Active Brake Assist for emergency braking, can be used to identify and defuse potential danger spots.