Concepts · 2019
When the driver is optional.
Ten years after ESF 2009, Mercedes built another experimental safety vehicle — this time for electric powertrains, flexible seats, and robots that plant warning triangles.
At the 2019 Enhanced Safety of Vehicles conference, Mercedes rolled out a GLE wearing research colors and a roof full of lidar pods. Chairman Ola Källenius put it plainly: some of the ideas were near series production; some looked far ahead.
Autonomous driving changes the crash. Seats recline. Pedals retract. Other road users need to read a car that has no driver making eye contact. The ESF 2019 was the lab notebook for that world.
Chapter I
PRE-SAFE grows up again.
Since 2002, PRE-SAFE had been teaching Mercedes cars to act before the impact. The ESF 2019 added chapters: Curve tensioned belts when map data said you had misread a bend; Impulse Rear could accelerate the car a fraction to soften a rear-end hit at the end of a jam; side lighting used electroluminescent paint to strobe the flanks at risky intersections.
With Britax, PRE-SAFE Child networked a seat that checked its own installation, watched the child, and pretensioned before a crash — ISOFIX with a nervous system.
PRE-SAFE Child
Networked Britax seat that pretensions and monitors
PRE-SAFE Impulse Rear
Nudge forward to soften a rear-end hit in a jam
PRE-SAFE Curve
Belt tug 2.5 s before a bend you underestimated
Side lighting
Electroluminescent paint that strobes for visibility
Rear airbag
Tubular structure for rear occupants — later on the S-Class
Hazard robot
A small robot deploys a warning triangle from the rear
Chapter II
Empathy as a safety feature.
Fully automated cars need to be readable. The ESF 2019 explored cooperative communication — light and display cues so pedestrians and cyclists could intuit intent when no driver was gesturing. Active Brake Assist 2019 watched vulnerable road users even in the blind spot and in cross-traffic; 360° pedestrian protection covered parking maneuvers.
In automated mode the steering wheel and pedals could retract, clearing injury paths and making room for reclined postures. A tubular rear airbag — later headed for the S-Class — protected passengers who still wore belts.
And if the worst happened anyway, a small robot could drive out of the rear and plant a warning triangle while another folded from the roof — hazard marking without asking anyone to walk into traffic.
Epilogue
The next decade’s shopping list.
Like ESF 2009 before it, the 2019 car was a parts bin for the future. Rear airbags, refined PRE-SAFE logic, and clearer communication with the outside world began migrating into series cars almost immediately. The robot with the triangle may take longer. The question it asks will not: when the driver is optional, who keeps the road safe?