Stay alert with a cup of java

By CARSIFU | 1 October 2019


STUTTGART: In case you didn't know, today is International Coffee Day as declared by the International Coffee Organisation. And it ties in nicely with what Mercedes-Benz has to say about its drowsiness warning system ATTENTION ASSIST.

Mercedes-Benz also uses the wake-up effect of coffee: 10 years ago. This assistance system can recognise typical signs of fatigue and prompt drowsy drivers to take a break.

The intuitively recognisable symbol for this is a stylised coffee cup in the instrument cluster. ATTENTION ASSIST is now standard equipment in all Mercedes-Benz car model series. More than 14 million vehicles featuring it have already been delivered to customers.

"Take a break" could not be more simply and internationally understandably illustrated than with a coffee cup," says Klaus Frenzel, head of UX Design, who is responsible for the design of the user interfaces in Mercedes-Benz vehicles. "The friendly nature of this prompt is another positive aspect. After all, our vision is to provide a comprehensive experience in the car. We want drivers to feel completely at home. It is also important that the complex digital world is made as easy as possible to understand."

"Preventing stress-related accidents and improving driver fitness safety is one of the major thrusts in our safety development," says Dr Michael Hafner, head of Driving Technologies and Automated Driving. "Assistance systems like ATTENTION ASSIST, which support the driver, make their contribution to this."



In 2009, Mercedes-Benz presented the drowsiness warning system as a world first and introduced it as standard in the E and S-Class. It is now standard equipment in all the brand's passenger cars. It is therefore on board much sooner that legally prescribed: from 2022, all new cars in the EU must have such as a system.

In Germany, over-tiredness is the cause of around 0.7 percent of all accidents with personal injuries, and of around 1.2 percent of all accidents with fatalities, according to 2018 figures from the German Statistical Office.

To date, Mercedes-Benz has delivered more than 14 million vehicles equipped with ATTENTION ASSIST to customers, and in the German In-Depth Accident Study accident database, no accident by a Mercedes-Benz model with over-tiredness as the cause has been recorded in Germany since the introduction of the system as standard.

Whether with milk and sugar, black, whether brewed or espresso, from a large pot or in a tiny cup, coffee has fans all over the world. And the Germans love it too.

While Finns are the most voracious coffee drinkers in the world at 12.5kg per year, German consumption is modest; they drink around 164 litres of coffee each per year or 5.5kg per capita per year.


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