Gimme a brake!

Both Mercedes and Honda are launching ‘pre-emptive’ braking systems that automatically dab the brakes when radar sensors predict that you’re about to shunt the car in front. Neither system will bring the car to a complete halt, but the partial brake application is intended as a last-ditch effort to make the driver pay attention to the impending disaster.

Honda’s Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) will be launched on the all-new Legend that goes on sale in the UK this September, while Mercedes wraps its solution up within a broader safety package called Pre-Safe Brake that will be standard on the new E-class in the UK.

The systems essentially work in the same way: if sensors detect that you might be about to crash into the car in front, audio and visual warnings are triggered and, in the Honda, the seatbelt is tugged tighter and the brakes lightly applied.

If you ignore these warnings and a crash seems imminent, the brakes are partially applied (up to 40 per cent of full pressure in the Mercedes) and the seatbelts get the full pretensioning effect.

Hit the brake pedal in the Mercedes at this point and the amount of pressure required to avoid the accident is applied for you automatically.