Fifth Gear Compares DISTRONIC PLUS Against Lesser-Priced Competitors

Autonomous emergency braking (AEB), once only available in the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and its competitors, has now trickled into lower-priced segments, and for good reason: to save lives. Euro NCAP estimates AEB can prevent up to 8,000 deaths per year, and Volvo says its City Safety-equipped vehicles have reduced accidents by 27 percent when measured against competitors.

Fifth Gear pitted Mercedes’s DISTRONIC PLUS against Volvo’s City Safety and Volkswagen’s City Emergency Braking systems to see how they compare. Comparing the AEB systems as standalone options, Volvo City Safety costs about 92 percent as much as DISTRONIC PLUS, while Volkswagen’s less-complex system for the Volkswagen Up! only costs 11 percent as much as the Mercedes system.

Check out the video below to see how all systems stack up.

via [Fifth Gear]