Suppliers and carmakers often invite us to tech days to show off their latest gadgets and gizmos. But while it's always great to speak with the engineers, the new technology often turns out to be little more than a gimmick or—even worse—yet another killjoy nanny system introduced to keep you “safe.”

So our expectations were not at an all-time high as we traveled to Stuttgart last week to drive the next iteration of Mercedes' Active Body Control (ABC) suspension. As we sat down with S-class project leader Hans Multhaupt and the company's super-brain, Prof. Bharat Balasubramanian—he’s the head of product innovations and process technologies at corporate research and advanced engineering (whew!)—the first surprise was the name of the system: "Magic Body Control.” What, not another ASSIST or something-TRONIC (capital letters Mercedes' own)? Nope, and this marks the beginning of a new nomenclature, where the brand's coolest high-tech options—defined, it says, as those with the most tangible customer benefit and the biggest wow factor—will use the "Magic" appellation from now on.

Mercedes' current ABC system uses a hydraulic piston to act on each steel coil spring to quickly and independently adjust the suspension on each wheel in reaction to the road surface, and it does a fine job keeping the ride smooth and occupants unjostled. But the key term there is “reaction”—the suspension deals with the bumps after the wheel has encountered them. What if the car knew what was coming in advance, with absolute certainty and down to every imperfection? The oil flow at each corner could be adjusted so accurately that any surface flaw could be practically neutralized.