Abstract: An automobile having a cargo space, a rear door opening for accessing the cargo space and a door pillar which delimits the rear door opening. The vehicle has a rack which in a stowed state is arranged entirely in the cargo space and is at least partially concealed by the door pillar as viewed from outside the automobile in the direction of the vehicle longitudinal axis of the automobile, and in a deployed state is arranged at least partially outside the cargo space. The vehicle has a transfer mechanism to transfer the rack between the stowed state and the deployed state via the rear door opening, wherein the transfer mechanism is configured such that, during a transfer of the rack from the stowed state into the deployed state, the rack moves inward in the direction of the vehicle transverse axis of the automobile.

Abstract: A method is specified for determining a size of a defect occurring in a surface region of a component while a surface modification process is performed on the surface region. The method includes identifying an occurrence of a defect occurring in a surface region of a component on a basis of a set of images and determining a size of the defect in a separate method step from the occurrence of the defect identified. In addition, an apparatus and a computer program are specified for determining a size of a defect occurring in a surface region of a component while a surface modification process is performed on the surface region.

Abstract: A value stream method of manufacturing a plurality of vehicle structural rails includes feeding a coil of aluminum alloy sheet into a roll forming machine and forming a tubular shape with a seam, bobbin tool-friction stir welding the seam of the tubular shape and forming a welded tubular shape with a welded seam, cutting the welded tubular shape into a plurality of tubular sections, tube bending each of the plurality of tubular sections and forming a plurality of bent tubular sections, and hydroforming each of the plurality of bent tubular sections and forming a plurality of structural rails. The coil of aluminum alloy sheet may or may not be pre-treated and/or lubricated.

Abstract: A method for determining defects that occur while carrying out a surface modification method of a surface region of a component includes providing an image sequence of a surface region to be assessed. Each image of the image sequence shows an image detail of the surface region and the image details of the individual images overlapping at least partially. The method further includes assigning the individual images to at least two image classes, where at least one image class among the at least two image classes is indicative of a defective image class. The method further includes checking whether a set of individual images of a predeterminable number of directly consecutive individual images in the image sequence have been assigned to the defective image class, and outputting a defect signal.