In his rollicking rock anthology, 1971 – Never a Dull Moment, Rock’s Golden Year, author David Hepworth makes a compelling case for why this was rock music’s most important year ever.

It was a period of unprecedented disruption, creativity and technological breakthroughs, according to Hepworth, during which time the Rolling Stones were promoting their controversial new album Sticky Fingers, with its hit single ‘Brown Sugar,’ and fellow British rockers Led Zeppelin were riding a wave of success with their untitled fourth album, which became the year’s biggest seller.

If 1971 was considered seminal in the evolution of rock, then it was also a historic moment for automotive safety, as Mercedes-Benz engineers unveiled the first-ever Experimental Safety Vehicle (ESF) prototype, ESF 05. It kicked off a program that has driven industry-wide changes to the way cars are built, saving thousands of lives in the process.

Crashing symbols

Our story starts a few decades earlier, in the 1950s. The world was embracing automobiles like never before as economies recovered from the travails of WWII and people embraced the freedom of personal movement afforded by motor vehicles. But by the 1960s one aspect of mass motorisation could no longer be ignored: more and more people were dying in road traffic accidents.

In 1968, the American Department of Transportation (DOT) started a program inviting expressions of interest in the development of Experimental Safety Vehicles (ESVs). Mercedes-Benz swiftly embraced the opportunity.

By this stage, the brand could already look back on more than 20 years of safety research, including development of a safety lock to prevent car doors from springing open in an accident; introducing the "unsharpened" interior to reduce secondary injuries in a crash; and designing crumple zones at the front and rear to absorb crash-impact energy.

Mercedes-Benz had also been crash testing at its Sindelfingen plant as far back as 1959. Ten years later it formed an accident research department to analyse real-world accidents, and systematically incorporate the findings into its vehicle development.

In early 1971 a project dubbed ‘ESF’ went full speed ahead at Sindelfingen.  By October 1971, a month before Led Zeppelin would release the untitled studio album containing the iconic ‘Stairway to Heaven’, Mercedes‑Benz was presenting ESF 05.

Ahead of its time

This vehicle, based on a series production car from the medium-class W 114 series, was designed to protect its occupants whether in a frontal impact against a fixed wall at 80km/h, being dropped from a height of 0.5 metres, or in a range of other front, rear and side impact tests.

Over the next four years, more than 30 ESF vehicles would be built and tested at Sindelfingen. This included a revised version of ESF 05, dubbed ESF 13, which debuted in May 1972 at the Transpo ’72 mobility trade fair in Washington D.C. Like its predecessor and the many ESF models that would follow, ESF 13 was ahead of its time, displaying safety solutions such as anti-lock brakes (ABS), airbags for all passengers, a halogen headlamp system with wiper and range control, a rear window parallel wiper, and powered windows instead of rotary crank handles.

The ESF program continued throughout the 1970s, with Mercedes‑Benz displaying the S-Class (116 series)-based ESF 22 in 1973, which introduced four three-point belts, each with three force limiters and a belt tensioner, plus an airbag for the driver's seat.

It was followed in 1974 by ESF 24, which paved the way for series production of ABS (1978), driver’s airbag and seat belt tensioner (1980), and belt force limiters and side airbags (1995).

The arrival of this fourth ESF model brought the original ESV program to a close, with Mercedes-Benz stating ESF 24 “represents the best possible compromise between the original ESV requirements and our present production models". By then, the introduction of new and advanced safety technologies had become an integral part of the development process for any new Mercedes-Benz vehicle.

Getting the band back together

In 2009, to mark 50 years of the safety body and 40 years of accident research, Mercedes-Benz presented a new Experimental Safety Vehicle, ESF 2009. Among its many innovations, ESF 2009 introduced the inflatable seatbelt, or Beltbag, which later entered series production in the 2013 S-Class (222 series); Interseat Protection in the form of an airbag installed on the inner side of the driver's seat to prevent the driver and front passenger colliding during a side impact; and PRE-SAFE^® 360°, which became PRE-SAFE^® PLUS in production, providing recognition of an impending rear-end collision and priming the safety systems accordingly.

A decade later as enduring rock veterans the Rolling Stones were about to begin the North American leg of their No Filter tour, Mercedes-Benz pulled the covers off ESF 2019, a new concept that provides clear insights into where automotive safety is heading.

From analogue to digital

Based on the brand’s GLE mid-size SUV, ESF 2019 features a dazzling array of advanced safety technologies including a steering wheel and pedal cluster that automatically retract into the firewall when autonomous driving mode is enabled; virtual crumple zones that detect accidents before they’ve even occured; and a cooperative communication system that enables the car to ‘talk’ with other drivers, pedestrians and cyclists, conveying information on road and traffic hazards to those outside the vehicle.

Sadly, Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980. The Rolling Stones, meanwhile, remain among one of the world’s highest-grossing bands of all time. But while the Stones and some contemporaries continue to tour and draw huge crowds, fans new and old still clamour to hear those huge hits from 1971, the year David Hepworth says stands apart as “the busiest, most creative, most interesting and longest-resounding year” of the rock era.

For rock music, it arguably never got any better than 1971. For automotive safety, the same year stands as a foundation for the many innovations that stemmed from the trailblazing ESF 05 and continues through to ESF 2019, illuminating the pathway to embrace safe, sustainable mobility over the coming decade and beyond.

By Jonathan Weller