Mercedes Highlights Their Ongoing Commitment To Road Safety And Climate Protection

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

Mercedes-Benz affords equal importance to climate protection and safety when developing new passenger-car models

Mercedes-Benz will continue its comprehensive commitment to road safety and, at the same time, take further major strides forward in its quest to reduce both fuel consumption and emissions. These were just some of the key statements made by the Mercedes experts at a conference in Leipzig, signalling the start of a new safety initiative for 2009. The car is becoming part of the thinking process, with the capability to assist the driver in keeping with the current situation or act autonomously whenever there is a risk of an accident.

"We will not let up in our long-standing quest to make motoring even safer and further reduce the number of road accidents", said Dr Thomas Weber, Daimler AG Board of Management member responsible for Group Research and Development Mercedes-Benz Cars. He added that there would also be no let-up in the drive to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions. Dr Weber: "We afford and will continue to afford equal importance to safety and climate protection."

He also stated that the new E-Class, due to celebrate its world premiere in spring 2009, would show that further important advances were possible in both domains. This Saloon sees Mercedes-Benz extending its safety concept based on real-life accidents by introducing new assistance systems such as ATTENTION ASSIST (for detecting drowsiness), Adaptive Highbeam Assist and the PRE-SAFE®brake (an automatic emergency braking system). "The new E-Class will be the safest car in this market segment and, at the same time, consume far less fuel than its predecessor thanks to new engines, intelligent energy management and a raft of other measures", explained Dr Weber.

Following on from the successes achieved in the domain of occupant protection, Mercedes-Benz will be focussing more than ever on avoiding traffic accidents and reducing accident severity, with the dozen or so new or modified driver assistance systems making their debuts in the new E-Class and the model year 2009 S‑Class set to play a crucial role. "Thanks to the globally unique interaction of state-of-the-art safety technology, we are able to extend the cars' 'senses' and enhance their intelligence. Mercedes models therefore become part of the 'thinking' process and are capable of seeing, feeling, reacting instinctively and acting autonomously," said Ulrich Mellinghoff, Head of Mercedes Safety Development, speaking in Leipzig.

Like tried-and-trusted Mercedes inventions such as ABS, ESP®, Brake Assist and PRE-SAFE®, the new assistance systems have been adapted based on real-life traffic and accident findings. The aim behind their development was to prevent frequent types of collision and collisions with serious consequences by focussing on the causes of accidents such as distance to other vehicles, speed, drowsiness, darkness and lane departure.

Safety development founded on accident research and experience

When it comes to the further development of occupant protection systems, Mercedes-Benz will likewise continue to concentrate on real-life accidents. Mellinghoff: "For us, car safety means more than just passing statutory crash tests or crash tests specified by rating organisations. Whilst these laboratory tests are right and important for evaluating cars' impact resistance, they are merely a snap-shot of what actually happens in an accident."

According to the Sindelfingen-based experts, the knowledge of how to build safe cars can be gleaned on the road – quite literally. They point to the long-standing tradition of Mercedes safety development, which has yielded practically every innovative safety technology now used in passenger cars, from the crumple zone to ESP®. All of these inventions were preceded by painstaking accident analyses which highlighted how to avoid collisions and enhance occupant protection. Some 3800 serious road accidents have been scrutinised since Mercedes set up its own in-house accident research facility – vital preparatory work for ensuring the on-going development of passenger-car safety.

Around 40 different crash tests. One shining star

Rating tests are just one aspect of Mercedes-Benz' extensive programme of crash testing. Whereas only two crash tests (frontal and side impact) are required for a brand-new car to gain approval in the EU/ECE, and the coveted five-star Euro-NCAP rating can be achieved by taking part in just three impact tests, Mercedes models have to pass 25 further approval and rating crash tests. These are required in order to be able to sell the cars all over the world.

Then there are nine extremely demanding in-house tests, devised based on real-life accidents. Ulrich Mellinghoff: "A new model such as the E-Class nowadays has to come through a total of around 40 different crash tests before it can be passed as fit for series production. Only cars which pass this tough examination get a star: the Mercedes star."


Copyright © 2008, Daimler AG



Mercedes-Benz Highlights Their Ongoing Commitment To Road Safety And Climate Protection


M

http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/auto-swerve-merc-in-five-years-/246478#

Auto-swerve Merc 'in five years'

• Steers around pedestrians
• Within five years
• Different from Volvo system

Mercedes-Benz is working on a new safety system than can automatically steer around pedestrians to avoid accidents.

Ulrich Mellinghoff, head of safety development at Mercedes, says it's likely to appear within the next five years.

Talking to What Car? at the Detroit motor ahow, Mellinghoff told us that in 80% of accidents with people, just 20% of a car's frontal area hits the pedestrian.

This means it would take only 40-50cm of movement for a Mercedes to automatically swerve around a pedestrian that had been detected by the car.

Driver should react first

Mellinghoff says motorists must always accept ultimate responsibility for safety, so there will be warnings to try and encourage the driver to react first, like in other Mercedes systems.

Mercedes' pedestrian crash prevention system differs from Volvo's CitySafe, which brakes to avoid a collision.

It will add to the package of systems that are already available including the drowsiness monitor recently introduced on the E-Class and planned to appear in every Mercedes.

Mercedes safety record

Although Mellinghoff thinks it may be impossible to eliminate all accidents - an ambitious goal Volvo has set - he says that it has recently become difficult to find real-world accidents involving Mercedes drivers that have been killed or seriously injured.

Mercedes has been visiting accidents for decades, like Volvo, but Mellinghoff says they haven't found a crash in which a Mercedes driver was seriously injured or killed in the past two years.


http://www.whatcar.com/car-news/auto-swerve-merc-in-five-years-/246478

Wolfgang said:

Mercedes-Benz is working on a new safety system than can automatically steer around pedestrians to avoid accidents.

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That's incredible...if this debuted on the W222 we would have an extremely technologically advanced car on our hands...pre-scan and this...

Sci Fi shit..

We are slowly moving to the days when we no longer have to drive.

NarutoRamen said:

We are slowly moving to the days when we no longer have to drive.

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Yeah, I heard a rumor that the W222 S-Class won't have a driver door at all, just doors for passengers.

bmer said:

Yeah, I heard a rumor that the W222 S-Class won't have a driver door at all, just doors for passengers.

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Nah, There will be a door for the driver side, just no steering wheel.

just to sit in there like a captain in a ship and enjoy the ride of the new century

Such automatic systems can become a huge legal nightmare for the car makers. Not only in US but also elsewhere.

Why? Since drivers can then directly blame the car (the manufacturer) for the accident - since it wasn't prevented by the car's automatic systems.

Either that being while auto-parking, auto-braking, auto-swerving etc. Or even awake-assist - and you still fall asleep behind a wheel.

Sure driver should react first but still ... some people will & already do depend too much on such systems. One day even monkey will be capable of driving such a car then.

Regarding this newest system: steering away to avoid collision with pedestrian. what about in the crowded street. Pedestrian ahead of the car, cyclist along the car, mother with baby on the side-walk, truck approaching on the opposite lane. What will the car do? Who will be chosen to get hurt? Pedestrian, cyclist, mother with a baby, you (crushing into truck)? What will be the criteria / algorithm in this case? Will MB engineers create a hierarchical list of victims?

Or there is one pedestrian to avoid, but while avoiding him, you hit another one. One is black, the other white. Or one is young, the other is old. Or one is rich, the other is poor. Etc. How will the car react? How will the car choose who to hit & who not to?

IMO at least in a crowded street this system is more a danger or liability than a help.

EnI said:

Why? Since drivers can then directly blame the car (the manufacturer) for the accident - since it wasn't prevented by the car's automatic systems.

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I would love to sue the automaker responsible for the system that made the car swerve clear of a bunny just to smash into a pedestrian.

I doubt it will ever see production in the foreseeable future. It is one of those nice things to make a press release on a slow day and get some oohs and ahhs.

dr Dunkel said:

I would love to sue the automaker responsible for the system that made the car swerve clear of a bunny just to smash into a pedestrian.

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Or even more: while avoiding a pedestrian, crashing you & your car into approaching truck. Sure PRE-SAFE will do all it can to minimize the consequences of the impact with a truck. I'm sure all the windows & moon-roof will close properly, the car wil brake, seat-belt pre-tensioners will activate, hazard lights will go on etc ... And the v5.0 PS system will also say a prayer for you just before the hit.

Perhaps MB should start to work on the transportation beam ... Just ahead of a collision: "Beam me up, Benzy!"

We had an incident last week here, with a Volvo XC60 with this stupid auto-braking and pedestrians protection system. The salesguy was with a customer on a testdrive, guy crosses the street, the Volvo system worked miracles, yet the driver in the car behind the XC60 didn't react quickly and rammed the Volvo from behind. Now he claims that the Volvo auto-braking system is responsible for the crash.

The law clearly states that he is responsible for the crash, since he was very close to his front car, but the case is taken to court.

EnI said:

Or even more: while avoiding a pedestrian, crashing you & your car into approaching truck. Sure PRE-SAFE will do all it can to minimize the consequences of the impact with a truck. I'm sure all the windows & moon-roof will close properly, the car wil brake, seat-belt pre-tensioners will activate, hazard lights will go on etc ... And the v5.0 PS system will also say a prayer for you just before the hit.

Perhaps MB should start to work on the transportation beam ... Just ahead of a collision: "Beam me up, Benzy!"

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First: it says that the car will not change its lane but only move 40 or 50cms, as it seems sufficient to avoid the pedestrian.

Second: if the system can detect a pedestrian, don't you think it can also detect a 40tons, 3m high and 2.50m wide truck? Given that it already can detect it since 1998 and the Distronic?

Third: are you honestly thinking the MB engineers are so dumb that they could develop a system that sees one pedestrian, but not the others surrounding him?

Only because BMW did not foresaw that system, doesn't mean that system cannot be good.

However, I am not in favour of such systems, the driver is and should stay the responsible. I don't take my car to be treated as an incapable monkey by it. A car that buzzes, beeps, warns and shouts at you all the time is not what I want.

Nobody mentioned BMW in this thread, so leave it out of it.

Sure the system will recognize the objects & people, but the question remain how kind of algorithm will be used: what will be criteria when eg. the car will have to choose who / what to hit?

As said: imagine several passangers in the "hit zone", and approaching car / truck or cyclist from the opposite direction - in the "avoiding zone".

What will car do then? Choose who / what to hit? Or will car just hit the pedestrian in the "hit zone" & say to driver: "Sorry to bother you, sir, but we just hit a pedestrian." and then the system will dial 911 / 112, and tell the operator where the did accident happen (GPS coordinates).

Such systems can be good to some degree, but in the end of the day they give driver a false impression (s)he can be less alert - since relying too much on the automatic prevention systems.

^i think your questions will be answered in due time..
they wont release a faulty system..
Dont worry

I agree, when the system is fool proof and it can't fail, then it is a good system, otherwise, it will only be taken advantage of by motorists who have done something wrong. There are so many examples of this...

Sure such systems can be helpful, but they are not miracle makers.

I'm just saying the real life is so much complicated that in various situations the collision will be inevitable. So, I'm wondering weather in such situations the swerve-assist won't reactant all & the car will just engage the PRE-SAFE systems, or will the car be able to choose from possible collision scenarios: picking "the most optimal one" based on a predefined algorithm. I hope not.

Imagine the car picking a selected "hit victim" since it did a calculation based on predefined algorithm the selected impact will have the smallest effect on the car.

EnI said:

I'm just saying the real life is so much complicated that in various situations the collision will be inevitable.

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You raised a good point.


ATZ

As Ulrich Mellinghoff said in 80% of accidents with people, just 20% of a car's frontal area hits the pedestrian. Initially it will likely only be confined to those (favorable) cases. Like ABS and ESP it will likely be introduced as a "comfort system", and not absolve the driver of responsibility.