Virtually no other area inspires us to produce consistently impressive results more than the research of new safety technologies. We passed an important safety milestone during the 50s with the development of the passenger safety cell, an invention by Béla Barényi. Today it is just one of many components of PRO-SAFE™, the integral safety concept which edges us ever closer to our vision of accident-free driving.

PRO-SAFE™ divides automotive safety into four phases: "safe driving" comprises all components which aid safe driving, detect critical situations, warn against these situations and provide the required level of targeted assistance; PRE-SAFE® (optional in R 280) prepares the occupants and the vehicle for a possible accident if the likelihood of an accident is very high; the PASSIVE-SAFE systems can provide just the right degree of protection during a crash; and POST-SAFE is a raft of measures which increase the level of occupant protection after an accident.