The native form of this personal name is Barényi Béla. This article uses the Western name order.

Béla Barényi (1 March 1907 – 30 May 1997) was a Hungarian^[1][2][3]-Austrian engineer^[4], regarded as the father of passive safety in automobiles.^[5][6] He was born in Hirtenberg near Vienna. After mechanical and electrical engineering studies at the Vienna college, he was employed by Austria-Fiat, Steyr and Adler (predecessor of Audi) automobile companies before joining Daimler-Benz in 1939. Heading the pre-development department of Daimler-Benz from 1939 to 1972, he developed eg. the concept of the crumple zone, the non-deformable passenger cell^[7], collapsible steering column, safer detachable hardtops^[8] etc. and other features of Mercedes-Benz automobiles.

He is also credited with having conceived the basic design for the Volkswagen Beetle in 1925^[6], five years before Ferdinand Porsche claimed to have done his version. Barényi was nominated for the award of Car Engineer of the Century in 1999 and inducted into the Detroit Automotive Hall of Fame in 1994.

Barényi died in Böblingen, Germany. A Mercedes advertisement featuring Barényi’s image stated: “No one in the world has given more thought to car safety than this man.”

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