The EQS is a watershed model for Mercedes-Benz: its first model based on a bespoke battery electric vehicle (BEV) platform and, more importantly, the first time the marque’s luxury and technology flagship has been pure-electric.
While it’s the beginning of a new era, it’s also the end of one. There’s no sign of the traditional S-Class leaving us just yet – it’s also available globally as a hybrid and PHEV, remember – but we are potentially saying goodbye to decades of the S-Class being a go-to for motor industry firsts.
So it seems like a good time to celebrate a few of those S-Class innovations. Okay, they’re not all firsts as such, but where Mercedes wasn’t the point of origin it was certainly the maker that made so much new technology work in a reliable way, taking it forward.
The S-Class model line started with W116 (1972), but the great leap forward came with the 1978 W126, which featured anti-lock braking. Mercedes-Benz wasn’t actually first with this technology (that was British sports car maker Jensen), but the company pretty much perfected it.
READ MORE
The W126 was also one of the earliest cars to have a driver’s airbag and certainly the first to feature it as an integrated restraint system, working with seatbelts and pretensioners.
View all Mercedes-Benz S-Class models listed on DRIVEN
Burgeoning bits and bytes tech also helped the 1991 W140 bring Electronic Stability Program (ESP) to market – or “stability control” as we mostly call it now, which uses the anti-lock braking system to brake individual wheels when the driver is in danger of losing control. Mercedes later added Brake Assist, which automatically applies maximum pressure if the sensors detect an emergency stop.
The 1998 W220 brought Distronic, a properly reliable radar-based version of adaptive cruise control, which maintained a set distance from the car in front without any extra driver input. From 2002 the S-Class also featured Pre-Safe, which instantly closed windows/sunroof and adjusted the seats for optimal occupant safety in a crash.
The 2013 W222 employed the car’s forward cameras to scan the road surface ahead and adjust the adaptive suspension ahead of time to compensate for bumps. The ultimate version of this technology was called Magic Body Control, and included a Curve function that leaned the car into corners like a motorcycle.
Finally, the current-generation W223, launched last year, includes rear-seat frontal airbags and such high-tech gems as face-tracking for the 3D instrumentation (to maintain the right depth effect).