The Ghost has standard Active Head Restraints, which use a specially designed headrest to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the Active Head Restraints system moves the headrests forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. At the same time the pretensioning seatbelts fire, removing slack from the belts. The S8 doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
Over 200 people are killed each year when backed over by motor vehicles. The Ghost has standard Active Park Distance Control that uses rear sensors to monitor for objects to the rear and automatically applies the brakes to prevent a collision. The S8 doesn’t offer automatic braking for stationary objects directly to the rear.
The Ghost has a standard blind spot warning system that uses sensors to alert the driver to objects in the vehicle’s blind spots where the side view mirrors don’t reveal them. A system to reveal vehicles in the S8’s blind spot costs extra.
To help make backing out of a parking space safer, the Ghost has standard Cross Traffic Warning, helping the driver avoid collisions. Audi charges extra for Rear Cross-Traffic Assist on the S8.
The Ghost’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The S8 doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the Ghost and the S8 have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear seatbelt pretensioners, four-wheel antilock brakes, all wheel drive, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems and around view monitors.