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In 1991 the first premium passenger cars with CAN data bus technology in powertrain electronics came to market. Development of in-vehicle network concepts for comfort and convenience electronics on the basis of a standardized CAN protocol started in the same year. As a result, in-vehicle data bus technology is now in series production since early 1995 with four nodes in a 40 Kbps network which will be upgraded to more than 10 participants for MY 98 vehicles. Car manufacturer's design goals of wiring harness reduction (20 %) and cost reduction (10 %) have been fulfilled. In addition, new features like anti-theft and immobilization easily can be implemented by use of data-bus technology in combination with a gateway between class B an class C networks. Finally, the paper will describe the limits of today's network topology on the basis of current chip technology. System chip design and sensor/actuator integration will be a need to overcome today's net-work limitations.

This paper highlights the obstacle detection system developed by the Daimler Benz group to assist the driver, particularly in dangerous traffic situations and in case of bad weather. The area in front of the vehicle is scanned by a radar beam, and the actual traffic is analysed by signal processing software. Safety distance is calculated and displayed, and a warning is given to the driver whenever necessary. With this information, driving safety and comfort is increased while all actions to be taken still remain under driver control. Cruise control applications can be regarded as a natural system extension. A special chapter is dedicated to vehicle test data evaluation based on a mobile video system operating in the traffic environment and data post-processing in the lab.