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- Stuttgart, Aug 6, 2012 - 25 years ago Mercedes-Benz was the first automobile manufacturer in the world to introduce the front passenger airbag in a series-production car. The technology debuted in the S-Class (model series 126) at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in September 1987. It elevated the safety standards in Mercedes-Benz passenger cars to a new level and thus represented yet another logical step by the pioneer in passive vehicle safety in a long line of outstanding innovations.
- Stuttgart, Mar 26, 2012 - The Mercedes-Benz SL, W 113 series, launched in 1963, was the first sports car in the world with a safety body. It was designed so that the area impacted upon – both at the front and at the rear – would deform, thus reducing or completely dissipating the kinetic energy in the corresponding area. The vehicle interior, the actual passenger compartment, on the other hand, was designed to be rigid in order to act as a safety cell for the vehicle occupants.
- Stuttgart, Feb 7, 2011 - In 1981 Mercedes-Benz was the world’s first automobile manufacturer to present the airbag and belt tensioner as restraint systems to the public in a series-production car. These two milestones in passive safety were premiered in a W 126-series S-Class Saloon at the 1981 Geneva Motor Show. At Mercedes-Benz, this began the introduction of the modern airbag as a passive safety feature into the entire passenger car range, with the airbag and belt tensioner already becoming available as optional extras for all Mercedes-Benz cars in 1982.
- Stuttgart, Dec 20, 2010 - On 23 January 1951, Daimler-Benz AG registered a patent for the passenger car body with a passenger safety cell. This invention by Béla Barényi was granted Patent No. 845 157 with the title "Motor vehicle, specifically for personal transport". This was a trailblazing innovation, as it is still seen as the fundamental feature of passive automotive safety to this day. In 1959 the safety body with its rigid passenger cell entered series production for the first time in the Mercedes-Benz W 111 series (model 220b).
- Stuttgart, Jul 11, 2009 - Daimler-Benz AG first presented the new six-cylinder Mercedes-Benz 220, 220 S and 220 SE models in the fashionable fintail design at a press event on 11 August 1959. These were the first production passenger cars to feature safety bodies – having both a passenger cell with maximum stability (“rigid passenger compartment”) and front and rear crumple zones.
- Stuttgart, Feb 15, 2009 - Daimler-Benz presented its dynamic handling control FDR, a system jointly developed with Bosch in Arjeplog in Sweden in mid March 1994. It had its market launch a year later under the name Electronic Stability Programme ESP® and represented a further milestone in the field of active safety.
- Stuttgart, Jan 23, 2009 - On 23 January 1951, Daimler-Benz AG applied for patent number DBP 854 157, using the unadorned description of "Motor vehicles especially for the transportation of people". Behind this was concealed no less than the invention of the crumple zone. A patent which in the following decades revolutionised the entire automotive industry.
- Stuttgart, Jul 1, 2008 - In August 1978 Mercedes-Benz presented the second-generation anti-lock braking system (ABS), developed together with Bosch, to the press in Untertürkheim. The world-first enables a driver to retain steering control even during emergency braking. From December the innovation became available, initially in the S-Class sedans (116 series).
