Mercedes previews technology before Frankfurt auto show

Future Mercedes will crash less often and use less gas doing so. We got a few insights into exactly how that will happen when we attended the Mercedes preview the night before the Frankfurt auto show. Inside its own enormous hall at the International Auto Austellung, Mercedes previewed gas-saving and accident-avoiding technologies we can expect to see on production cars within the next decade. Suffice to say we won't have to give up luxury or performance to get greater efficiency and safety.

First, the safety: Mercedes chairman Dieter Zetsche rode onto the stage at the preview night in the back seat of a big S-class, which in itself was not remarkable -- except that there was no one in the front seat driving the car. The S 500 Intelligent Drive incorporates data from eight radars, three cameras and a digital map to navigate not only auto show stages but highways and city streets as well, the latter two often full of everything from wayward deer to pedestrians. Mercedes showed a short film of the car completing the same 63-mile drive route of another Benz 125 years earlier, Bertha Benz' drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim in an original three-wheeled Benz automobile. Don't look for the S 500 Intelligent Drive in showrooms too soon, though. Board member Dr. Thomas Weber said there still needs to be greater computing power, better digital maps and a set of laws governing the new technology before it could be in showrooms. However, he said it could happen by the end of this decade.

In the clean department: Benz pulled the wraps off the S 500 Plug-In Hybrid model. It promises 78 mpg -- the mythical 3.0-liter/100 kms in Euro-speak -- without giving up the luxury S-class buyers have grown accustomed to. The five-seat sedan will still make 440 hp and can go about 18 miles on electricity alone. Expect to see it in U.S. showrooms in early 2015.

Mercedes also showed a smart concept, the Fourjoy, which, as its name suggests, seats four and promises to add depth as well as seating capacity to the smart franchise. The concept had an aluminum frame and no doors on it while the production model will have doors and a steel frame. Expect to see it in Europe next year and in China the year after that; no U.S. Fourjoy plans were mentioned.

Tomorrow, or today depending on where you are in the world, Mercedes will unveil the S-class Coupe, GLA, and S63 4Matic. Stay tuned.

About the show

The 2013 Frankfurt motor show will be held Sept. 10-22 in Germany. Premium automakers appear ready to try to outdo each other with eye-catching electric supercars. Green technology and fuel efficiency will take center stage on the stands of most automakers at the show. For news, reveals and photos straight from the floor in Frankfurt, check out our special Frankfurt motor show section here.

By Mark Vaughn