From modular design and changing regulations to autonomous technology and connected, software-defined solutions, major shifts are at the heart of an integrated approach to safety across TRATON’s brands.
Commercial vehicle safety is undergoing a profound transformation. Historically centered on crash survival and passive safety regulations, the focus has now shifted toward proactive prevention, supported by advanced technologies and specialized services that address every stage of vehicle design, production, and operation. At the same time, TRATON GROUP remains uncompromising in its commitment to passive safety, striving to perform well beyond legislative requirements, which are often too low to significantly impact real-world accidents. True progress in reducing casualties comes from achievements in both active and passive safety, working together to protect drivers, passengers, and all road users.
In line with TRATON’s core purpose of “Transforming transportation together. For a sustainable world”, TRATON’s brands Scania, MAN, International, and Volkswagen Truck & Bus are increasingly aligned in embedding safety across their organizational cultures and processes.
Impact on people
With 1.19 million lives lost globally every year (2023) due to road traffic crashes, the human cost of road accidents makes safety a major issue. The most recent year for which comparable EU-wide data is available shows that in 2022, heavy-goods vehicles were involved in nearly 14% of all road fatalities in the EU-27, down from 16% in 2016. This reflects gains from holistic improvements in road and vehicle safety, underpinned by better technology.
While progress is evident, the disproportionate impact of HGV-related fatalities underscores the need for continued advances in safety-focused design. Active safety systems, such as speed sensors, warning systems, and automatic emergency braking, help prevent accidents before they occur, while passive systems, including airbags, work to minimize harm if a collision does happen.
Every improvement represents a step toward saving lives, and TRATON and its brands now regard safety as both a core design principle and a key measure of success in product development.
Driving smarter, safer innovation through modularization
Modularization is at the heart of TRATON’s strategy to deliver safety more efficiently and effectively across its brands. Central to this is the TRATON Modular System (TMS), a Group-wide development framework that provides common components and systems for identical needs between customers of different brands or markets.
By structuring safety innovations into interchangeable modules, TRATON can focus engineering efforts where they are most needed. Previously, brands worked independently, often tackling the same challenges in isolation. A unified approach identifies shared safety challenges, enabling teams to address different issues in parallel and achieve faster progress. Access to global data also allows engineers to tailor components to specific conditions, for example, drawing on Scania’s experience in extreme Scandinavian winters to configure a solution for an International customer in Alaska.
Developing and validating components once, followed by scaling across brands, results in more robust and reliable outcomes.
Johan Berglund, Strategic Product Planner at TRATON GROUP
TRATON views safety as a core responsibility, shaped by diverse and evolving regulatory demands. Compliance is non-negotiable, so regulatory foresight is integrated into the company’s safety strategy.
To manage this complexity, TRATON monitors safety legislation across various markets, from cybersecurity laws in China to direct vision standards in Europe, utilizing detailed legal roadmaps to guide product planning. “With the TRATON Modular System, we can build flexible platforms that meet regional regulations, allowing us to apply safety functions like automatic emergency braking across markets”, according to Johan Berglund, a Strategic Product Planner at TRATON GROUP. Close collaboration between regulatory experts, product planners, system engineers, and certification specialists ensures this readiness.
Autonomy: taking responsibility for the virtual driver
As commercial vehicles become more intelligent and automated, safety extends also beyond mechanical systems and passive protection to include sensors, data, and software. (TRATON brands already have a lot of active safety functionalities in their vehicels. You can find out more in this article.) With higher automation, the responsibility shifts to TRATON and its suppliers to ensure system decision-making is safe, explainable, and verifiable. “With Level 4 autonomy, there is no driver backup. Every critical system needs a reliable backup. The vehicle must remain safe to operate, or transition into a safe state, even if part of the system fails,” emphasizes Stefan Riegl, Domain Head for Systems Engineering at TRATON GROUP R&D.
This marks a shift in safety criteria, from physical crash tests and hardware reliability to the behavior of a virtual driver, tested and benchmarked against human capability. As vehicles grow more complex, systems engineering becomes central to developing safety systems for increasingly autonomous vehicles.
With Level 4 autonomy, there is no driver backup. Every critical system needs a reliable backup.
Stefan RieglDomain Head for Systems EngineeringTRATON GROUP R&D
Optimizing safety through software
Jennie Edvardsson, Sustainable Transport Business Manager at Scania
As vehicles become increasingly software-defined, development cycles accelerate through connected systems, over-the-air updates, and real-world data. “Software-defined vehicles (SDVs) enable faster development, which opens up new opportunities for smart and seamless integration,” explains Stefan Riegl. To support SDVs effectively, a modular software architecture built on a solid foundation is essential. This way, we can ensure safety, security, and stability from the outset. This foundation must be intensively tested, as safety, security, and robustness are non-negotiable.
TRATON’s products will be increasingly able to learn and improve constantly, with features like predictive maintenance, dynamic driver coaching, and real-time risk monitoring transforming safety from a static feature to a service that evolves beyond the factory gates. While this comes with its own set of challenges, it also brings significant benefits.
“Without proper training and awareness, even the most advanced safety features can be ineffective”, stresses Jennie Edvardsson, Sustainable Transport Business Manager at Scania. Ongoing education and driver training are key to ensuring these technologies reach their full potential and contribute to safer roads.
Embedding safety for the long term
At TRATON, safety is a shared responsibility that is embedded throughout the organization. From software developers and engineers to compliance and service teams, a safety-first mindset underpins every stage of development and operation. By integrating this principle into every facet of its strategy, from modularization and regulatory foresight to software development and lifecycle management, TRATON is meeting today’s challenges while helping customers reduce accident rates and expensive insurance claims, and providing safer working conditions for drivers. The result is safer roads worldwide, contributing to the broader goal of reducing the millions of lives lost to traffic crashes each year.
Voices of our safety experts
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Joakim Dahlborn, product strategy manager, TRATON GROUP: “Modularization is about finding smart ways to meet performance, safety, and sustainability goals without solving the same problem twice.”
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Magnus Jalkesten, head of regulatory affairs, TRATON GROUP R&D: “Our job is to make sure legislation works in practice, not just for today’s products, but for the trucks we’ll be building 10 years from now.”
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Reimert Sjöblom, product property manager – safety, Scania: “Active safety is moving center stage. As technology advances, prevention becomes the priority. Not only for improving road safety but also as part of our wider commitment to sustainable transport.”
