Warning Drivers of Hazards : A ‘Smart Car’ Is Next Project for Mercedes

West Germany’s Daimler-Benz AG is working on a car that will be able to warn a driver of hazards or deteriorating weather along the road.

Daimler, best known for its Mercedes autos, is trying to lead the auto industry in the development of “intelligent” cars that can communicate with a central, electronic traffic information system.

The company is investing hundreds of millions of marks in the project, called Traffonic--a combination of “traffic” and “electronics”--and also is changing its own corporate structure to support research.

Traffonic, on display at the Hanover trade fair, is still at the early research stage and will not be ready for public use until the next century, Alfred-Herwig Fischer, a director in Daimler’s research and technology department, told Reuters.

Parallel to Prometheus

Daimler is developing Traffonic parallel to Prometheus, a joint, 10-year project by 13 European car makers and 40 research institutes.

Launched in 1986, Prometheus will set electronic frequency, safety and data-processing standards for a pan-European electronic traffic system.

While Prometheus is a pure research program, the 13 auto producers also are competing with each other to create cars and components that can exploit the electronic network, Fischer said. In Daimler’s case, this is Traffonic.

Rolf Povel, responsible for Daimler’s car research, told Reuters the aim of Traffonic is to enable drivers to behave more like flocks of birds or shoals of fish that never collide despite their seemingly uncoordinated confusion.

The system would provide a driver with instant information about the location and speed of vehicles ahead and potential accident risks, enabling him to act to prevent a collision.

‘Ideas Will Vanish’

“Daimler identifies fully with the Prometheus project and with Traffonic and many of its ideas will vanish if the projects do not become reality,” Povel said.

Daimler’s decision to steer the company down this road had a difficult birth.

Company sources say it was championed by the present management board chairman, Edzard Reuter. They say predecessor Werner Breitschwerdt thought Daimler should stick to what it knew best, making cars.

Last summer, Breitschwerdt was ousted from the board and Reuter took control. He has since made up for lost time and started to integrate Daimler’s subsidiaries.

Last week, Daimler announced it would take full control of the electronics company AEG AG, in which it has a 56% stake. The company said it intended to find a similar solution for the aerospace and medical research group Dornier GmbH, of which it already owns around 65%.

Daimler also owns the industry engine and turbine producer MTU Motoren und Turbinen-Union GmbH.

Work Together

Rudolf Hoernig, Daimler management board member in charge of research and technology, told reporters at this month’s Hanover fair that from now on, Daimler and its three subsidiaries would work together on research.

In the Traffonic project, for example, Daimler would work on the car, Dornier on the safety standards and AEG and MTU on the operational devices, Hoernig said.

Despite the publicity and confident words about Traffonic, Daimler officials admit the going is far from easy.

The main problem is cost. Daimler officials refused to give figures but acknowledged it is taking a calculated risk.

High-technology projects are extremely expensive and could only be repaid if the final product could be mass-produced at low cost and sold at competitive prices, Povel said.

For example, AEG was producing magnetic field sensors, which could be suspended from bridges, to record data on traffic volume or vehicles.

Expensive to Install

Electromagnetic induction coils in use today for similar purposes are located under the road and are expensive to install and maintain, he said.

Pavel said another obstacle to the realization of an electronic traffic system was the lack of approval from the government, which would have to help pay for it.

Creation of a single, unified and tariff-free European Community market in 1992 would be helpful, but Povel said many legal and administrative differences still had to be resolved.

Finally, he said, a data-recording system such as Traffonic could attract hostility if it was seen to violate individual privacy.