Mercedes Benz Working on the Next Level in Car Safety

The Mercedes-Benz ESF 2009 Experimental Safety Vehicle is a research vehicle being developed by the brain trust of engineers at Mercedes Benz.
The different safety features being studied in this “rolling lab” are many.

Mercedes is testing a new “Child Cam”. Remember those days when Dad had to say “Don’t make me pull this car over!”? With the Child Cam, a small camera is inserted in the roof lining just behind the front seats. Then, still shots (not video, since it would be distracting) are sent to a dashboard display. So, no more horseplay in the passenger seats!

With their PRE-SAFE 360, sensors on the vehicle can tell if a rear collision is about to occur. The PRE-SAFE system will apply the brakes 600 milliseconds before the Mercedes is hit from behind. This prevents the car from being pushed into an intersection or crosswalk. It also lowers the possibility of whiplash. To enahnce shiplash protection, this research vehicle also incorporates the NECK-Pro crash responsive head restraints already available on many Mercedes models. In the event of an impending crash, this system moves the headrests forward by 40 millimeters and up by 30 millimeters. All of this happens in micro-seconds. Amazing!

Mercedes is also incorporating size-adaptive airbags. That’s right, the airbags adjust to the size of the occupant. The system uses three restraining bands to customize the volume of the airbag to the occupant of the seat.

Another system being tested is an airbag system that deploys between the driver and front-seat passenger, preventing them from colliding with each other.

Still another innovation being tested is the Braking Bag. This airbag deploys UNDER the car, just milliseconds before a collision. The effect is slow the car down using the drag of the bag. Ever run over a plastic milk jug, or trash can?

Pretty soon, we won’t even need to DRIVE our cars….they’ll do the driving for us. Minority Report and I Robot are not that far off!