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The megatrends "reduction of emissions" and "fuel consumption reduction" play a predominant role in the development of powertrains. For transit buses this implies both the reduction of emissions and pollutions of the internal combustion engine, and, on the other hand, a further reduction of noise and brake dust. Also very important is the reduction of both fuel consumption and CO₂ emissions. For all these targets the actual developments on the engine side have led to great improvements in the last decades, but what can be mentioned for the other components of the powertrain, especially looking for transmissions? First of all the relevant trends for transit buses have to be considered: A large increase of the torque of the combustion engines during the last years has a big impact on the development of transmissions for buses.

Given the legal requirements for quality assurance of passenger car exhaust emissions worldwide we define our quality assurance system and present the emission laboratories of the Mercedes-Benz assembly plants Sindelfingen and Bremen. We developed a hierarchically structured, multi-level computer system, which enables us to automize emission test procedures, calibration, maintenance of measurement systems and documentation of exhaust data. Test cell computers coordinate the different components of the test cells and perform maintenance and calibration of measurement devices, thus guaranteeing a high measurement quality with reasonable economy. The coordinating level computer, the emission host system (EHS), processes test parameters, controls and supervises the test sequences and evaluates the test results on a statistical basis.

The purpose of this research was to present and analyze a previously unreported mechanism of injury within the automotive crash environment - spinal burst or compression fractures due to a vertical force component. Spinal burst fractures are comminuted fractures of the vertebral body which are often associated with retropulsed bone fragments into the spinal. Compression fractures are less traumatic fractures of the vertebral body with minimal comminution. Both fracture types can have varying degrees of neurologic deficit. The mechanism of injury is hypothesized to be a high energy compressive load along the axis of the spine initiated through the buttocks and pelvis or through torso augmentation (inertial loading of the lumbar spine by the torso). Four crashes are presented as evidence of this injury mechanism within the automotive crash environment: two in the United States and two in Germany.

As the engineering community continues working on automated driving (AD) functionalities, the topic of safety validation still provides fuel for discussions. Despite the vehicles equipped with higher level AD functionalities ready to enter service on public roads, there is still no state-of-the-art process created for safety validation procedures. In this situation, vehicles with similar functionalities may end up coming through fundamentally different validation procedure, and the public may be exposed to additional risks. This paper fist formulates requirements which safety validation process needs to fulfill. The requirements are based on ISO 26262, PAS 21448 (SOTIF), and the state of the art requirements typical for safety applications. Then, the process of implementation of those requirements is sketched.