Preventing accidents altogether or at least mitigating their consequences has always been a top priority for Mercedes-Benz Trucks across all model series. That is why new, more effective safety and assistance systems are constantly being developed for the vehicles and existing systems optimized. Almost all of the safety and assistance systems that are now mandatory for trucks were first used in a Mercedes-Benz truck. The company is now showcasing the current state of the art at Mercedes-Benz Trucks with its new Safety Truck. Based on the battery-electric Mercedes-Benz eActros 600, the truck lives up to its name. The even more powerful Active Brake Assist 6 emergency brake assistant is on board, as are the Active Sideguard Assist 2 turning assistant, Front Guard Assist, and Traffic Sign Assist, to name just a few examples[1]. Most of the systems presented in the Safety Truck are now standard features in newly registered Mercedes-Benz trucks. The systems not only comply with the General Safety Regulation (GSR) standards that have been in force since July 2024, but in some cases exceed them in scope. In the case of the further developed Active Brake Assist 6 Plus and the also further developed Attention Assist 2 – both systems will be available from February 2026 – both systems already pre-fulfill some of the regulations for the coming years.
Rainer Müller-Finkeldei, Head of Product Development at Mercedes-Benz Trucks: “We have been investing in research and development for many years in order, among other things, to provide drivers with even better support in their daily work with assistance systems and to further increase the safety of road users. With the new Safety Truck, we are underlining our commitment to continuing to drive forward the development of systems in order to make the vision of accident-free driving a reality.”
All road users are affected
Safety assistance systems can help to ensure that moments of inattention due to fatigue, stress, or distraction, for example, have as few serious consequences as possible for everyone involved. In addition to vehicle occupants, this benefits other road users in particular, such as those traveling by car, bicycle, or on foot. After all, they are most often the ones who suffer in accidents involving trucks. According to the latest figures published in February 2025 by the EU database CARE, in 2023, approximately 90 percent of fatalities in accidents involving goods vehicles weighing 3.5 tons or more were people who were not occupants of these vehicles. Car occupants accounted for the majority of fatalities at around 50 percent, followed by pedestrians at around 15 percent and cyclists at around 6 percent[2].
Overall, the number of road users killed in such accidents has fallen in recent years. In 2013, there were just under 3,260 road deaths in this category, compared to around 2,830 in 2023. This corresponds to just under 14 percent of all road deaths in the EU – a percentage that has remained more or less at this level for some time. Looking only at the occupants of goods vehicles weighing 3.5 tons or more killed in all road traffic accidents in the EU, the number in 2023 was 333. That was slightly more than 1.6 percent of all 20,384 traffic fatalities[3]. The most common types of accidents – as shown by accident research analyses conducted by Mercedes-Benz Trucks – include rear-end collisions, especially at the end of traffic jams, lane departures, side impacts at intersections, collisions when turning due to blind spots, and accidents involving crossing pedestrians.
New electronics platform
When it comes to active safety systems, equipping vehicles with cameras and sensors is crucial to their effectiveness. In this context, Mercedes-Benz Trucks has introduced a new electronics platform in the Mercedes-Benz eActros 600 and Mercedes-Benz Actros L, which uses sensor fusion to combine radar and camera data, enabling an even wider detection range to the front and sides. The electronic platform offers 20 times higher data processing power, and the six sensors installed – four short-range radars on the front and rear, both on the right and left, a long-range radar in the front center, and a multifunction camera in the windshield – can cover an angle of 270 degrees around the vehicle. As a result, the built-in safety assistance systems can play to their strengths even better.
Active Brake Assist 6 Plus with multi-lane monitoring
One example of the efficiency of the 270-degree fusion technology and the partial overfulfillment of the GSR is the Active Brake Assist (ABA), now in its sixth generation. Daimler Truck’s latest emergency brake assistant can now react to pedestrians crossing, approaching, or walking in the lane, as well as cyclists, with automated emergency braking to a standstill at speeds of up to 60 km/h. The GSR requires the extended response to pedestrians and cyclists for new trucks and buses only from July 1, 2026. As before, the system can react to vehicles in front at speeds of up to 80 km/h with emergency braking to a standstill. Another added value of ABA 6 is multi-lane monitoring at a distance of up to 250 meters for even better hazard detection.
Active Brake Assist 6, which will be replaced by Active Brake Assist 6 Plus in February 2026, already pre-complies with AEBS (Advanced Emergency Braking System) legislation, which will come into force in September 2028. Thanks to the 270-degree fusion technology mentioned above, the system is able to react even faster to critical situations. This means that accidents can be avoided more effectively, both for vehicles traveling at up to 90 km/h and for pedestrians and cyclists traveling at up to 60 km/h. The system also clearly indicates when it is fully initialized.
The lane and attention in the camera view
To ensure that a brief moment of inattention has as few serious consequences as possible, Lane Keeping Assist is also a proven system – it can alert the driver to an imminent departure from their marked lane by means of an acoustic and visual signal with a warning message on the display. To do this, a digital camera constantly monitors the road ahead of the truck and can detect dangerous deviations from the lane on marked roads.
The Attention Assist system, which is almost always automatically integrated in vehicles larger than 18 tons with Lane Keeping Assist, also plays an important role in this context. Even when Lane Keeping Assist is deactivated, the system continuously monitors the driver’s attention using various parameters. The Attention Assist can detect from typical steering maneuvers when the driver’s concentration on safe driving is waning and, after detecting a critical threshold, prompts the driver to take a break with visual and acoustic signals. Attention Assist is active at speeds of around 60 km/h and above. If Lane Keeping Assist has been deactivated, it is automatically reactivated with a warning from Attention Assist.
New Attention Assist 2 calculates viewing angle and fatigue level
Attention Assist 2, a further developed version of Attention Assist, will be available from February 2026. The system can help prevent accidents by issuing visual and audible warnings if the driver is inattentive or overtired. Using an integrated infrared camera for visual recognition of head and pupil position, it detects not only the driver’s fatigue level based on signs such as increased blinking, yawning, or drooping eyelids, but also the driver’s attention level based on the calculated viewing angle. This is a closed system: all data remains exclusively in the vehicle and is deleted by the system after 15 minutes.
Active Sideguard Assist 2 with extended functionality on the driver’s side
The extent to which equipping vehicles with six sensors and the associated increased detection range can improve road safety is also demonstrated by the second-generation Active Sideguard Assist (ASGA). ASGA 2 monitors traffic on both the driver’s and passenger’s sides and, with its two-stage warning system, can alert drivers to potential hazards so that critical traffic situations can be defused by timely intervention. ASGA 2 can provide information and warnings on both sides across the entire speed range and also covers the legally required area on the passenger side. More specifically, this is 30 meters behind and 7 meters in front of the vehicle up to a speed of 30 km/h. The system can also initiate automated braking up to a speed of 20 km/h when turning right until the vehicle comes to a standstill if the driver has not responded to an acoustic and visual warning. With this function, too, the system exceeds the requirements of the GSR, which only stipulates that the turning assistant must issue a warning if necessary. In addition, ASGA 2 features an intelligent lane change warning concept that depends on the vehicle’s position in the lane.
Front Guard Assist monitors the traffic area immediately in front of the vehicle
The new Front Guard Assist can be a helpful feature for avoiding accidents with pedestrians or cyclists who may be directly in front of the truck when starting off. The assistance system monitors the traffic area in front of the vehicle and supports drivers when the vehicle is stationary, when starting off, and at intersections. If the system detects stationary or moving objects in front of the vehicle, it supports drivers in driving situations up to 15 km/h by issuing hazard warnings via the two-stage warning system. The 270-degree fusion technology covers the blind spot in front of the vehicle from 0.8 meters to approximately four meters across the entire width of the vehicle.
Traffic Sign Assist recognizes traffic signs in real time
Daimler Truck also goes beyond the GSR requirements with another assistance system: Traffic Sign Assist. While EU regulations only require the display of the applicable speed limit, the system also recognizes overtaking restrictions and their lifting, as well as other warning signs, and always displays the last two identified signs on the multimedia cockpit or classic cockpit. By intelligently linking camera and map data, Traffic Sign Assist also supports the driver by permanently displaying the last recognized speed limit relevant to trucks, which in turn makes it easier to comply with the permitted speed. The system can thus reduce the risk of accidents caused by excessive speed and inattention. This also helps to avoid traffic tickets or fines for speeding. An audible warning sounds when the permitted maximum speed is exceeded. The OCR technology used – essentially optical character recognition – also “reads” any time restrictions in t