Four years ago, Mercedes-Benz’s E-Active Body Control suspension system went viral thanks to the ‘Free Driving Assist’ mode on the GLE that allowed the SUV to bounce up and down to help get it unstuck from deep ruts and sand.
Sadly, the GLE is no longer available with the trick suspension setup in the U.S. and instead, it is limited to select GLS and S-Class models. However, it still has all of the fancy features that it first debuted with and a video shared to LinkedIn by the head of corporate communications at Mercedes-Benz, Tobias Just, reveals that even the S-Class can bounce up and down.
Read: New Mercedes GLE Has The Moves – And It’ll Rock Itself Free If You Get Stuck Off-Road
As far as we’re aware, the E-Active Body Control suspension featured on the S-Class doesn’t have the same bouncing mode as the GLE and GLS. However, the S-Class in this video can be seen bouncing up and down as the suspension pushes up the front, rear, and sides of the luxurious sedan. Presumably, Mercedes-Benz’s engineers played around with the software of this S-Class to enable this function.
Having a suspension system that can do this on a vehicle like the S-Class certainly isn’t necessary but we know that the German car manufacturer uses E-Active Body Control in concert with the Pre-Safe Impulse Side system that raises the vehicle body slightly when the safety sensors detect an impending side impact. This technology helps to improve safety by shifting the force of the collision to the stronger structure in the lower part of the vehicle.