In the past as well as in the present, Mercedes has demanded to be the comfort benchmark in its respective segment. In doing so, the aspect of vehicle dynamics has not been neglected. Our customers have clear and accordingly high expectations of our products. The requisite optimisation of suspension and chassis leads to a layout which combines comfortable long distance travel with agility that makes country roads a pleasure to drive. To describe the ideal combination of driving comfort (,,Ride") and agility (,,Handling"), the term,driving culture" has been introduced at Mercedes. The term Ride describes road induced oscillations which affect vehicle passengers, while the term handling describes the vehicle reaction as a result of steering input or manoeuvres. In order to further develop the specific Mercedes driving culture, a new process was applied in the development of the recently introduced C Class. A digital prototype consisting of individual vehicle components which completely describes all of the physical vehicle details was made. The complete digital prototype, which is 1.2 terabytes in size, allows us to perform detailed analyses and checks before the start of the hardware phase. A design stage optimisation of Ride & Handling which decisively increased the degree of development in the first driveable vehicle prototypes was realised. In this process, complex simulation models are made in order to gain objective data to evaluate the Ride & Handling driving culture. However, a large portion of the objective data gained from simulation with the digital prototype, driving on a digitalised,virtual road", cannot be directly correlated to subjective values. Suitable passenger and driver models are not available. To overcome this difficulty, Mercedes has increasingly implemented simulators to subjectively evaluate vehicles in the digital prototype phase. These Ride & Handling simulators allow objective data gained from off-line simulation to be physically experienced, which also makes the data subjectively evaluable. With these tools, the degree of vehicle development can be increased to a high level in the early development phase. This saves expensive concept relevant development cycles in the hardware phase. The prototype testing phase which follows focuses primarily on the fine tuning. The ability to create objective data in a new, digital development process, coupled with the ability to subjectively evaluate it with the assistance of simulators in the trial and error method, is one of a kind. We have established this new process in order to optimally satisfy the demands of our customers for an increasingly complex product in the future.
