Mercedes’ way to guarantee safety: Crashing a car 150 times

A look inside Mercedes-Benz's safety center sheds light on the automaker's high-tech and thorough approach to ensuring the safety of its customers.

A Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan crashes into a concrete wall during a crash test at the Technology Center for Vehicle Safety in Sindelfingen, Germany, on Oct. 22. [MERCEDES-BENZ KOREA]

SINDELFINGEN, Germany — The engine whizzes as an EQS electric sedan carrying two humanlike dummies crashes into a 500-ton concrete wall. The front bumper fragments into pieces while the airbags deploy, with twelve cameras flashing on the sedan.

“The car looks devastating, but it’s better to look as devastating as possible, because our cars are intended to absorb shocks as much as possible,” said Julia Hinners, an engineer of crash safety at Mercedes-Benz AG, during a crash test at the Technology Center for Vehicle Safety in Sindelfingen, Germany, on Oct. 22.

“Mercedes-Benz wants our customers to be safe, so we crash each model about 150 times before its official release," Hinners added.

A Mercedes-Benz EQS sedan crashes into a concrete wall during a crash test at the Technology Center for Vehicle Safety in Sindelfingen, Germany, on Oct. 21. [MERCEDES-BENZ KOREA]

The most important part of the crash test, according to Hinners, is "after the crash, on how the car can help damaged drivers."

After the EQS crash, two firefighters approached the car to check if the incident caused any risks of fire.

An engineer then checked if the “automatic shutdown” system worked properly. Mercedes cars are all equipped with a system that automatically shuts down any high-voltage application with the detection of external shocks.

The doors are automatically unlocked so that people inside the car can get out. The vehicle also automatically reports the accident to a nearby fire agency.

Julia Hinners, an engineer of crash safety at Mercedes-Benz AG, speaks during a crash test at the Technology Center for Vehicle Safety in Sindelfingen, Germany, on Oct. 22. [MERCEDES-BENZ KOREA]

The dummies made to mirror humans automatically send all data, such as which part of the body sustained the most damage during the accident, to the control center so that it can analyze each type of incident.

The center, on a 55,000-square-meter (592,015-square-foot) site, was opened in 2016 to test cars by running various simulations of real-life accidents in order to qualify for launch in global markets.

“More than 50 crash scenarios are prepared in the center and a total of 900 crash tests along with 1,700 sled tests are conducted every year,” said Marcel Brodbeck, a crash safety engineer at Mercedes-Benz.

All new vehicles have to go through at least 150 crash tests based on the different road regulations and conditions of each country, along with 15,000 computer scenario cases.

The center can conduct tests at a maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour (62 miles per hour), but most of the tests are done at 64 kilometers per hour as that is the speed at which car accidents most frequently occur on the road.

The longest track run-up at the center measures more than 200 meters, and to make a digital 3-D image of the exterior of the car, no vibrations or any external shocks are allowed. To achieve this, around 500 concrete pillars below the floor plate descend as far as 18 meters into the ground.

“If a car doesn’t pass the test, it never can be launched in the market and must be redeveloped or redesigned," Brodbeck said. "Mercedes still has an obligation to protect vehicle occupants in the best possible way should the worst-case scenario arise."

Mercedes previously announced that it aims to cut accidents with fatalities or serious injuries involving its vehicles by half by 2030 and eventually to zero by 2050.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]