Béla Barényi (1 March 1907, Hirtenberg, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy – 30 May 1997, Böblingen, Germany) was an ethnic Hungarian engineer from Austria-Hungary,[1] who was a prolific inventor, sometimes even compared to Thomas Edison.

[8] Barényi was born in Hirtenberg near Vienna, Austria during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, of Hungarian[9][10][11] and Austrian heritage, from his father's and mother's side, respectively.

Whatever you invent will go directly to the patent department.”[12] Barényi was appointed straight as head of the pre-development department of Daimler-Benz, a position he kept from 1939 to 1972, where he continued to be a prolific inventor.

Barényi developed the concept of the crumple zone that he first came up with in 1937,[12] the non-deformable passenger cell,[12][17] collapsible steering column,[12] safer detachable hardtops[18] etc.

[19] The safety cell and crumple zones were achieved primarily by the design of the longitudinal members: these were straight in the centre of the vehicle and formed a rigid safety cage with the body panels, the front and rear supports were curved so they deformed in the event of an accident, absorbing part of the collision energy and preventing the full force of the impact from reaching the occupants.

[19][23][24][25] A more recent development was for these curved longitudinal members is to be weakened by vertical and lateral ribs to form telescoping "crash can" or "crush tube" deformation structures.