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the Mercedes-Benz ESF 2009 Experimental Safety Vehicle that fairly bristles with radical space-age technology designed to protect passengers in the most extreme cirumstances.
"Safety is a central element of the Mercedes-Benz brand," says Dr Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of Daimler AG and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Cars.
"In this respect we have been setting the pace in the market for almost 70 years."
"The ESF 2009 shows that we still have plenty of ideas and the absolute will, to lead the automobile industry in this field even in future."
"The safety testbed, the first Mercedes was built since 1974, started life as an S400 Hybrid before Benz's free-thinking safety experts got to work turning it into the ESF 2009 to showcase just how far motor vehicle safety can progress."
Tucked into the one-off super safe limo are innovative ideas such as an under-car airbag brake, inflatable metal side structures to improve side impact safety, seats that push the occupants away from the impact zone and seat belts inside an airbag.
These are just a few of the more than a dozen safety innovations built into the ESF 2009 at the company's test vehicle workshops in Sindelfingen.
"With the ESF 2009, we have chosen to demonstrate the innovative strength of Daimler," says Dr Thomas Weber, Daimler Executive Board member responsible for corporate research and development at Mercedes-Benz Cars.
"Anybody examining the ESF 2009 in detail will recognise that more safety and improved energy efficiency are not necessarily a contradiction in terms. We want to make progress in both fields with new, trailblazing ideas.
"The key safety innovations in the ESF 2009 include:
Pre-Safe Structure: Think metal anti-intrusion airbags. Concealed inside the doors these folded metal "bags" are deployed similar to airbags within the side structure of the car with its 10 to 20 bar pressure offering substantial stiffening to the side-impact structure. The inflateable metal structures can also be used in other areas of the car such as side skirts and seat cross members. The advantages mainly involve packaging and weight reduction. The downside is the high cost of components and their one-use lifespan.
Braking Bag: An inflatable brake assist system. Reading the Mercedes' Pre-Safe sensors the Braking Bag would be deployed from under the car between the front wheels when a crash is deemed innevitable. The extra friction of the bag against the road and its ability to lift the front of the car by as much as 8cm - combatting "dive" - helps the emergency braking and stabilises the front of the vehicle. Mercedes engineers have calculated that even at a low 50 km/h, the additional deceleration has the same effect as lengthening the front end by 180mm adding an extra crumple zone.
Interactive Vehicle Communication: When one car's sensors pick up a dangerous situation such as black ice or fog it can transmit that information as a warning to other cars in the area so hazards do not come as a surprise. Information from an external source such as police or traffic monitors can also be sent to the car's radio and computers via roadside repeater stations. Linked to modern proximity control systems such as active cruise controls, they can help to harmonise the traffic flow and avoid tailbacks by automatically selecting the most suitable vehicle speed when joining a motorway. And collisions can be avoided if onboard sensors recognise an impending accident and automatically regulate the distance. Mercedes believes the technology will be active within the next decade.
Pre-Safe Pulse: In an accident every millimetre counts and this system has the ability to maximise the benefit of the car's anti-intrusion structure. Air chambers in the side bolsters of the seat backs can shift the driver and front seat passenger up to 50mm closer to the centre of the car and away from the point of side impact. That extra space can reduce impact loads on the body by up to one third. As the sensors detect an innevitable accident it also accelerates the seat occupant in the direction they will later take during the accident. This reduces the loads during the impact. The seat does not need to be replaced or repaired when this preventive safety system has been activated.
Partial Main Beam: An adaptive LED main beam system that automatically excludes oncoming traffic from the cone of light. This enables the driver to leave the main beams switched on constantly. As soon as the system detects oncoming traffic with the help of a camera, it automatically adjusts the light distribution accordingly. If the infrared camera detects pedestrians in the road ahead they can be briefly lit up by spotlight.
Side Reflect: High visibility reflective material on the body and tyres to improve the lateral visibility of vehicles, and help to avoid accidents at roadjunctions.The modifications are not visible during the daytime, but show up in dusk and darkness.
Belt Bag: A combination of a seat belt and airbag which further reduces the stress on the body in a crash. The Belt Bag effectively doubles its width within fractions of a second during an accident. This increase in the width of the belt spreads the pressure over a wider area, thereby reducing the risk of injury. Particularly beneficial for older passengers, whose ribcage is no longer so flexible. Could be seen as early as the next generation of cars.
Child Protect: A new generation of child seats suitable for ages from three to 12. The seats are claimed to offer improved protection and greater comfort than the current generation of child seats.
Pre-Safe 3600: An extension of the Mercedes-Benz accident recognition and preparation system adding proximity monitoring to the rear of the car. Using short-range or multi-mode sensors to monitor the area behind the vehicle to a range of up to 60 metres. If the accident early-warning system registers that a collision is unavoidable, the brakes are applied around 600 milliseconds before the impact. If the already stationary car is braked during a rear-end collision, this not only prevents secondary accidents where the car is shunted into a road junction or onto a pedestrian crossing but the severity of possible whiplash injuries can also be reduced.
Size Adaptive Airbags: Future generations of airbags will not only take accident severity into account, but adapt themselves to the individual occupants, automatically adjusting their volume to the seating position and stature of the front passenger.
Child Cam: Security cam technology to keep the kids in line. A small roof mounted camera trained on the rear seats can put a series of still images up on a dash display to allow the driver or passenger to monitor what the kids are up to.
Interseat Protection: For front seat passengers a lattice-like airbag extends from between the front seats to keep the driver and front passenger apart. A seat-mounted solution like this has the advantage that the protective barrier adapts itself to the position of the front seats. For the rear passengers seat position is not an issue so a protective pad located above the centre armrest is used when an accident is detected.
Hybrid Battery Shield: Making sure green-aware drivers don't get a nasty shock in an accident. A seven-stage safety system which covers everything from servicing simplicity to constant monitoring and accident shut-down.
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