We live close to the original Mercedes manufacturing plant and tons of people in our area work there. We have a very good friend who tells all kinds of cool stories about the company policies and procedures. For example, they cannot bring a thumb-drive USB stick to work without getting authorization first. They're very tight with their security regarding confidential information and they're very serious about it...as they should be!
Another interesting thing is how they test drive the new cars that haven't been launched into the market yet. In addition to tests done on company-created tracks, car makers need to get the new models out on the road in real conditions, but they don't want to reveal the new designs to the public, or more importantly to competitors, so they often disguise the car using shaped plastic pieces and/or big leather blankets. They put the plastic pieces around the headlights or the bumper to conceal the real shape of the vehicle, then they usually wrap a leather blanket around the whole thing. Most people who see it on the road can't even tell what brand of car it is after the costume goes on.
So far, I've seen two of these cars in our area and I was astonished both times as I tried to figure out why the car was wearing a blanket! I wish I had some photos to add to this post, but it's obviously difficult (and dangerous) to snap a shot on the road while you're driving. So...I googled the topic and found this great video that explains the story and shows an example.
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/medialink/7737-secret-car-disguises-video.htm
Our friend at Mercedes said there's a big pool of cars that employees can "check out" for company use, but she said they don't get to choose the vehicle, so sometimes it might be a great E-class and other times you might get one of these new plastic-covered models that the factory wants to test. She hates getting one of those because everyone on the road stares...just like I did!
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