Your motor vehicle is equipped with an electronic braking system (EBS). What happens in the event of a failure of the EBS?

When a motor vehicle has an electronic braking system (EBS) and this system fails, German traffic regulations require certain safety measures to ensure braking capability is maintained. First, the failure is shown by an indicator light on the dashboard, alerting the driver immediately. This is crucial because it informs the driver that the primary electronic system is not functioning properly. Second, the vehicle's braking is taken over by a pneumatic redundancy system, which uses stored air pressure to apply the brakes. This backup system ensures that even without the electronic control, the vehicle can still brake safely. However, the vehicle cannot rely solely on the parking brake to stop; the pneumatic system is the emergency fallback to maintain control. Understanding this helps you recognize that vehicles with EBS have built-in safety redundancies to prevent complete brake failure.