Prof. Dr. Ing. Rodolfo Schöneburg was born on 30 October 1959, studied aerospace engineering and obtained his doctorate at the Technical University of Berlin. He holds an honorary professorship at the College of Technologyand Business Economics (HTW) in Dresden. He has been active as the head of the centre for safety/vehicle functions at Mercedes-Benz since April 1999. It was under his aegis that the preventive occupant protection system PRE-SAFE®entered series production in 2002, with which Mercedes-Benz started a new era in vehicle safety. Here are some of Prof. Schöneburg's comments on the ESF 2009 experimental safety vehicle.

Prof. Schöneburg: At the end of the 60s, vehicle safety suddenly became a focus of public attention. In 1969 the Mercedes-Benz Safety Centerwas founded in Sindelfingen. Numerous developments were initiated, ranging from active safety with ABS and ESP® to fundamental improvements in vehicle structures and innovative restraint systems such as the airbag. All of these were tested and presented in our ESFs, and from the mid-70s more and more of these innovations reached series production maturity. Accordingly they were subsequently presented with the launch of new series production models.

Prof. Schöneburg: Both in-house and externally, the large number of safety features that we already have in our series production cars has created the impression that we do not have much more to offer in this respect. This impression is quite wrong – we have a wealth of ideas on how safety might be improved still further. Some of these can be realised within a relatively short time, for example PRE-SAFE® for rear-end collisions. Other concepts like the inflatable metal sections in PRE-SAFE Structure lie well in the future. And with Interactive Vehicle Communication we are only just starting to develop a completely new field. The ESF 2009 comprehensively offers up all these perspectives. Moreover, our intention was to send out certain signals for the ESV Conference, which is being held in Stuttgart for the first time since 1971.

Prof. Schöneburg: As with the ESFs of the 1970s, this is a comprehensive embodiment of our safety philosophy. The primary aim is to prevent accidents in the first place. Where this is not possible, the aim is to mitigate their effects. Moreover, we want to approach both of these goals without increasing the vehicle's weight, restricting its practicality or compromising the autonomy of the driver. He or she bears the final responsibility – and the car should provide support in the process.

Prof. Schöneburg: These start with the concept of "seeing and being seen". The LED headlamps of the ESF2009 not only illuminate the road further and more efficiently, but also ensure that other detected road users are not dazzled in the process. The Spotlight function is something quite new: it precisely pinpoints obstacles or objects that have been recognised by the infrared Nightvision camera. Thanks to new reflective strips on the sides, which leave the body design unaffected during daytime, the ESF 2009 is also much more easily visible to other road users in the dark. One technology which we think has tremendous potential for the next few years and decades is car-to-car communication. This makes it possible to warn drivers of hazards on their route as the situation requires.

Question: In addition to highly developed restraint systems, Mercedes cars with
PRE-SAFE ® have a preventive safety system that can recognise an impending accident and mitigate its effects with numerous actions right up to automatic
emergency braking. Is it still possible to make significant improvements to this already high standard?

Prof. Schöneburg: Yes indeed. The basis for PRE-SAFE®is a network of onboard sensors and systems, and this is where we still have plenty of ideas for further developments. Take side impacts as an example: with the help of air chambers in the seats, it would be possible to move the passengers away from the danger zone to some extent. We have already spoken about improvements where rear-end
collisions are concerned. And the Braking Bag is a completely new approach to scrubbing off energy before an impact occurs.

Prof. Schöneburg: …certainly unusual, but by no means crazy. Initial trials of the principle have shown this idea to have considerable potential. In the next few years we intend to research and develop this potential further.