Truck shows don’t come any bigger than the IAA Commercial Vehicles Show in Hannover, Germany. Held every other September, it dwarfs anything we see on this side of the Atlantic. DaimlerChrysler’s display, taking up two huge exhibit halls on its own, was probably bigger than the entire Truck World show recently held in Toronto. And there were more than a dozen such buildings all told.

It’s not just big. If you want to check out the very latest, the very highest of high-tech in trucks and buses, Hannover is the place to be.

The catalyst for much of the innovation on display is safety. Products like electronic braking systems and cruise control that adjusts the truck’s speed according to the distance of the vehicle in front of it still elicit a gee-whiz response from North Americans, but are widely accepted in Europe.

It was four years ago that I took my first ride in a Daimler-Benz bus equipped with “active suspension.” D-B engineers, calling the system “Active Body Control,” placed hydraulic cylinders with shock-absorber modules and hydropneumatic accumulators between the axles and the vehicle body, instead of conventional shock absorbers and air springs. The electronically automated system uses oil as the force-transfer medium to control the pressure in the hydraulic cylinders. Sensors measuring pressure, acceleration, and displacement constantly gather information about the current situation of the wheels and body.

If, for example, the bus enters a curve, a signal processor uses the data from the sensors to calculate the pressure required at each individual wheel cylinder to compensate for the transverse acceleration due to centrifugal forces. A servo valve then pumps oil into the cylinder; at the same time, the pressure is reduced in the opposite cylinder. When the coach negotiated hairpin turns or ankle-deep ruts in the road, the chassis stayed so flat that passengers never spilled their coffee — even at 50 miles an hour.

Since that trip in 1998, engineers at European component makers have been busy. Germany’s WABCO Vehicle Control Systems, which has a joint venture with ArvinMeritor in North America, is at the forefront of EBS and adaptive cruise control developments. Like the Eaton VORAD product sold in North America, the WABCO adaptive cruise control system uses radar to sense the distance between a truck and any object or vehicle in its way.

The “adaptive” element means the system, with cruise control activated, will sense that distance and then act to prevent a collision by a combination of actions: breaking engine torque, applying the engine brake, making a downshift if an automated gearbox is used, and applying foundation brakes — with EBS — as required.

DaimlerChrysler calls its version “Telligent Distance Control,” and working with WABCO has gone one better to create what it calls the “electronic crumple zone.” In that case, using EBS, the system can make a panic stop all without the driver ever having to touch the brake.

I rode around WABCO’s test track near Hannover in a laden Mercedes Actros tractor-trailer to see how it worked. The driver brought the truck up to speed on the two-mile oval, and with the cruise set at 85 km/h, put his feet up on the dashboard as we approached a van parked in the middle of the track.

The system detected the obstacle and made a hard panic stop, automatically, with 20 feet to spare, as my body strained against the three-point shoulder harness.

The basic WABCO adaptive cruise control includes an automatic lane recognition feature, called “Lane Tracker” in the Mercedes version and the “Lane Guard System” on MAN trucks (as standard equipment). The system “sees” the truck’s position within its lane using a digital camera at the bottom of the windshield. When the truck starts to drift, it sounds an alarm in the cab — a different sound for the right and left sides.

Future developments involve electronic steering controls, in which the truck would be automatically steered back on course. The system would replace the mechanical steering gear with an electro-hydraulic version. DaimlerChrysler calls its product Active Lane Assistant, and it’s not far off.

What European engineers have done so well is to link various technologies into more complete vehicle safety and control systems. Consider WABCO’s Electronic Stability Control, or ESC. It depends on electronic braking, linking the engine, engine brake, and transmission together with ABS and the vehicle’s foundation brakes. ABS sensors measure wheel speed; a steering-angle sensor reflects the driver’s steering intentions; a lateral acceleration sensor picks up any drift away from his intended course; and a yaw-rate sensor tells the electronic control unit what’s actually happening — as opposed to what the driver is trying to do. ESC intervenes when it senses a difference between what the truck is doing and what it’s physically capable of doing.

In a situation, for example, where the driver swerves sharply in trying to negotiate an off-ramp while carrying too much speed, ESC will break engine torque and apply the brakes –wheel by wheel, individually, as required — to bring the truck under control.

It will also sense and prevent jackknifing by “stretching” the unit through judicious application of the trailer brakes alone, even if the trailer has conventional, non-electronic brakes.

And most impressive of all, it will work to prevent rollovers by sensing a trailer’s impending tilt and applying brakes wheel by wheel to stop the roll before it truly starts. For drivers who don’t understand what a high centre of gravity means, it would be a Godsend, especially as a trailer rollover cannot be felt in time for a driver to react and stop it.

Elsewhere on the European technology scene at Hannover, ZF Friedrichshafen showed an expanded ASTronic transmission family, an automated mechanical two-pedal gearbox we know as the FreedomLine marketed by ZF Meritor.

The company has added new transmission models with a broader range of torque capacity than before. ZF is also actively working on an independent front suspension for heavy trucks, and it showed off a starter and alternator in a single compact unit mounted directly to the crankshaft between the engine and transmission.

At its Hannover stand, ArvinMeritor’s Trailer Products division announced that, in partnership with Renault Trucks, it had created a new trailer axle, brake, and suspension system called Compatico. It’s designed to enhance tractor-trailer compatibility, specifically to extend the life of braking systems. Compatico arose from increasing fleet complaints about premature disc brake and pad wear due to incompatibility between trailer and truck braking systems

“Often, trailers, trailer axles, and their braking systems are not fully compatible with truck systems, which could lead to brake failure and wheel-end overheating problems,” says Tom Hughes, European sales director for ArvinMeritor trailer products. Renault’s 1,450 European dealers will be trained to service both tractors and trailers.

This report only touches on a little of what was going on at the Hannover show, much of which we won’t see on this side of the Atlantic. But that’s less true than it was just five years ago. Increasingly, global technologies are merging, whether fleet operators here want them to or not.