I just read a report that under normal traffic conditions, the average driver achieves considerably poorer emergency braking distances than what cars are actually capable of under 'laboratory' conditions. This even applies to cars fitted with ABS. The reason for this result is that even if the driver is faced with an emergency situation and reacts accordingly with the necessary urgency, he (or she) still does not apply the brakes as forcefully as may be required to avoid an accident. There appears to be a mental blockage built into most people's brain to bang the brake pedal down really hard, even in an emergency. Together with Continental and Lucas, Mercedes Benz is developing a new feature, a so-called brake assistant or BAS, that senses the speed at which the brake pedal is depressed, independent of the pedal pressure. As soon as the electronics sense that the brake pedal was depressed abnormally quickly, as in the case of an emergency, the box of tricks takes over from the driver and applies additional pedal pressure to achieve an optimum stopping distance.