Mercedes-Benz unveils its Experimental Safety Vehicle

MANILA: There are already some concepts in the Mercedes-Benz garages out there in Germany. But that shouldn’t stop the German automaker from bringing out more of them, should it? This time around, it’s the Experimental Safety Vehicle that has made its way out from the Mercedes-Benz development centre.

This Experimental Safety Vehicle is based on the GLE and will be showcased in front of the world in June 2019 at the 26th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV) that will be held in Eindhoven, Netherlands. The vehicle will make its debut at the 2019 Frankfurt Motor Show in September, later this year.

In order to safeguard the passengers inside, there is a special steering wheel and pedal cluster concept on the Experimental Safety Vehicle that retracts automatically in the situation of a crash. The seats have integrated safety belt system that comes with high-performance belt tensioners.

Furthermore, the driver airbag now resides inside the dashboard instead of the steering wheel. Then there are the integral side airbags which work in tandem with the main front airbag.

Mercedes-Benz has also integrated the sun visors with extra interior lights to make up for the less amount of sunlight that enters into the car. After the tests were performed, the automaker found that not only the occupants were more alert, but their reflexes were also enhanced thanks to the improved lighting inside the car. There is a Digital Light system on the Mercedes-Benz ESV which helps the car in communicating with the other vehicles and pedestrians on the road using different symbols and messages.

For children, the ESV comes with Pre-Safe Child system. The way this system works is - a radio message is used for networking the child seat with the car; therefore, whenever the Pre-Safe system is activated, the child seat belts are pre-tensioned.

The child seat in the ESV is an i-Size standard – ECE R129. Moreover, this seat also has a checklist with eight points which parents must abide by for flawless installation. More elements like a camera and multiple sensors keep a check on the baby, including its temperature, pulse, etc.

Moving on, the vehicle gets Active Brake Assist, which is capable of detecting cyclists in the blind spot along with pedestrians and cyclists who are moving parallel to the car. In situations when the vehicle needs to be stationary, a robot comes out from the rear of the vehicle with a warning triangle to warn other cars and drivers.

Then there is another warning triangle that pops up on the roof of the car. “Safety continues to be our core brand value,” said Dr.-Ing. Rodolfo Schöneburg, head of the Vehicle Safety, Durability and Corrosion Protection Centre at Mercedes-Benz Cars. “The great advantage of automating driving functions is that in the future, fewer accidents will be caused by driver error.

However, automated and driverless vehicles also come up against physical limits, and there will undoubtedly be mixed traffic consisting of automated and non-automated vehicles for many years,” he added.

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