ZF to present 360° safety concept for trucks and trailers

At its Commercial Vehicle Technology Day ahead of IAA Transportation 2026, ZF’s Commercial Vehicle Solutions (CVS) division presents new active safety technologies for trucks and trailers for the first time.

The focus is on a scalable 360° safety concept that combines sensing, perception, braking and steering into a coordinated system. This approach improves safety performance across all driving scenarios and creates a clear pathway toward higher levels of automation.

ZF says its 360° safety concept extends assistance systems beyond the truck to include the trailer as part of the perception system thanks to a high-speed automotive ethernet communications interface connecting trucks and trailers (so called `Truck-Trailer Link´).

Thus, the sensor data (radar and camera) from truck and trailer are combined into one environmental model to allow continuous 360° object detection with far fewer perception gaps compared to traditional methods.

This supports consistent driver assistance from highway driving to urban traffic and low-speed yard operations.