Daimler is setting new milestones in vehicle safety by developing pioneering active and passive safety systems. Examples from the past include the first airbags in production vehicles as well as the anticipatory occupant protection system PRE-SAFE®. Today, the company’s researchers and developers are working on turning the “Vision of Accident-Free Driving” into reality.
Active Brake Assist’s premiere at the IAA Commercial Vehicle show in Hanover, Germany, in the fall of 2008 made Mercedes-Benz the world’s first manufacturer to introduce a proactive emergency braking system for buses. Driving presentations with a Mercedes-Benz Travego model have shown how Active Brake Assist helps prevent rear-end collisions, thereby saving lives.
Online workshop for creative ideas: The Daimler Innovation Jam, which took place in the summer of 2008, represented the start of a special test event — a three-day intranet workshop that allowed employees to exchange innovative ideas. The results of this “virtual brainstorming” speak for themselves.
Mobility is a complex and, above all, global topic. Only companies that have expertise in all the relevant areas of technology and combine it with that of outstanding partners will lead the race to come up with the best drive system concepts. What are further milestones on Daimler's road map to sustainable mobility at Research and Development?
Sleeping can be fatal — especially if it occurs at the wheel of a car. Microsleep is a common cause of traffic accidents. Although some of them are minor, most are quite serious. In 2002, Group Research launched a fatigue recognition project, which was transferred to the development units two years later. The result of this work is an innovative assistance system known as "Attention Assist".
In the Risk Management project, a multi-disciplinary team of engineers support colleagues from passenger car, van, and commercial vehicle development departments throughout the entire product creation process. From evaluating new technologies used for the first time in the automotive industry, assisting with mass production and assembly operations to helping track down causes of defects in vehicles that have already been delivered.
Driving the fastest laps isn’t the only thing that counts in Formula Student, which in Germany has been staged by the Association of German Engineers (VDI) since 2006 and is sponsored by major companies like Daimler. Instead, Formula Student is primarily intended to be an international constructors’ competition for which students design and produce race cars themselves.
In 1995 the media praised the Dutch atmospheric chemist Paul J. Crutzen as the “Savior of the Climate” after he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry together with U.S. scientists Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina. The three researchers had identified CFCs as the cause of the ozone hole. In the interview, the professor emeritus talks about climate protection issues, the tasks of scientists, and the curiosity that drives scientific research.
