If you habitually spend hours at the wheel, you know full well how difficult it can be to keep constant watch of signs, drive in heavy traffic or creep along if there is a tailback. The Travel Assist can help out. When this feature is activated, the car can adjust its speed according to the surrounding traffic and the speed limit, keep the car in lane, and stop and start in a traffic jam.

The car can negotiate narrower lanes (e.g. at traffic construction sites) thanks to Narrow Lane Assist, a further improvement on Adaptive Lane Assist, which keeps the moving vehicle in the chosen position within the lane. The portfolio of situations that can be detected has been expanded to include – besides temporary yellow longitudinal markings – a variety of roadside objects, such as crash barriers and rows of (parallel and perpendicular) parked cars. The car can handle curves without longitudinal markings and navigate narrow city streets. The system only works at speeds above 60 km/h.

A picture processing module searches scanned pictures for known traffic signs and compares the results with the navigation data. The system processes speed limit signs, no-overtaking signs, no-entry signs on one-way streets and any supplementary instructions, as well as associated restriction clearance signs, and then displays them to the driver.

This system monitors drivers’ behaviour and assesses how tired they are using inputs from various vehicle control units. At speeds above 65 km/h, the system detects deviations from normal driving and continuously assesses drivers’ driving behaviour in order to judge their current fitness to drive. If the system detects driver fatigue, a warning tone sounds and a warning message is also displayed in Digital Cockpit.