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Due to their inherent advantages, goods transports on the road are indispensable. The permanently increasing competitive and legal requirements demand the exploitation of all technological and engineering possibilities. The high standard of commercial vehicle technology now attained means that new ways must be found of utilizing the remaining scope for further progress, e.g. by increased application of intelligent vehicle systems. This contribution describes such electronic systems. These systems will assist and relieve stress from the driver. Moreover, the possibilities of electronic intelligence will lead to an outstanding increase of active safety and transport efficiency of future vehicle generations [1].

The settings of adaptive suspension elements may be switched from a comfortable “soft” characteristic to a safe and “firm” characteristic. Thus the possibility is given to not only improve the ride comfort, but the dynamic driving behavior as well, since no compromise must be made between these two criteria when tuning the suspensions. Such systems seem to be very promising for commercial vehicles, as - because of their changing loading conditions - it is very difficult to design an optimal suspension system using conventional springs and dampers. This paper describes the influence of shock absorbers and air springs with variable characteristics on the ride comfort and the dynamic behavior of a 15-t-truck by investigations done with a simulation system. A series production vehicle without adaptive suspension elements serves as basis. At first the results of measurements and simulations are compared and show a very good concurrence.

In order to comply with the increasing demands on active safety, the commercial vehicle manufacturers have intensified the development work in the field of braking systems. The safety-relevant subsystems are “anti-lock system”, “retarder” and “engine braking system”. These systems were subject of a continuous optimization during the last years. Describing the influence of these subsystems on the steering and braking performance of commercial vehicles, it can be shown that this optimization was able to significantly increase the active safety of commercial vehicles. But it is also evident that the realized improved braking ability now demands an intelligent electronic control system which integrates the subsystems in a way that both stopping distance and vehicle stability during braking are optimized. This full-electronic braking system will lead to a further increase in safety and economy of commercial vehicles.

The increase of active safety will demand more and more electronic intelligence, if a drastic optimization of conventional systems is not possible any more. Starting from today's mechatronic systems, the trend leads via tomorrow's smart electronic systems to the future electronic networking of all intelligent vehicle systems. The paper describes the present status of these systems in Europe and the possibilities of increasing the active safety by using electronic intelligence.

The development of electronic intelligence and the continually increasing intensive knowledge of driving dynamics make it possible nowadays to conceive intelligent vehicle systems and to make such systems available for series production, which are capable of substantially enhancing the active safety of commercial vehicles. Through the implementation of advanced subsystems, which can be integrated as software packages into the basic electronic braking system, it will be possible to expand the possibilities of introducing assistance systems, which are capable of both, helping and relieving the driver from stress in critical situations. The driver will be relieved of all duties which could divert his attention or cause severe stress. As a consequence, the active safety of commercial vehicles will be considerably increased.