In the past twenty years hundreds of infants and young children have died after being left in vehicles, usually by accident. When turning the vehicle off, drivers of the AMG GLS are reminded to check the back seat if they opened the rear door before starting out. The SQ7 doesn’t offer a back seat reminder.
The Mercedes AMG GLS has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The SQ7 doesn’t offer knee airbags.
The AMG GLS’ standard pretensioning seatbelts also sense rear collisions and remove slack from the seatbelts to help protect the occupants from whiplash and other injuries. The SQ7 doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
The AMG GLS’ 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 SQ7 doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the AMG GLS and the SQ7 have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, front and rear seatbelt pretensioners, height adjustable front shoulder belts, 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, blind spot warning systems, around view monitors and rear cross-path warning.
The Mercedes AMG GLS weighs 728 pounds more than the Audi SQ7. The NHTSA advises that heavier vehicles are much safer in collisions than their significantly lighter counterparts.