A brake system (1) for braking a vehicle is disclosed. The brake system comprises a brake pedal control unit (4a1) configured to receive a brake pedal signal from a brake pedal sensor (21) and to respond with a primary deceleration intent signal onto a network, a brake actuator control unit (4b1) configured to activate a brake actuator (31) in response to a deceleration intent signal received from the network. The brake system (1) further comprises a central vehicle control unit (VCU) (6) that is configured to generate a secondary deceleration intent signal in response to the primary deceleration intent signal based on an overall state of the vehicle and a mode control unit (MCU) (8) to configure the brake system in an operational mode selected from at least a normal operational mode (N) and a degraded operational mode (D). The brake actuator control unit (4b1) is configured to activate the brake actuator (31) in response to a secondary deceleration intent signal in the normal operational mode and to activate the brake actuator (31) in response to the primary deceleration intent signal in the degraded operational mode (D) for applying degraded (emergency) braking to the vehicle.

An axle for utility vehicles includes a first wheel end and a second wheel end arranged opposite each other and rotatably on the axle, a recovery device connected to the first wheel end configured to recover rotational energy of the first wheel end, a braking device configured to decelerate the second wheel end, and a control unit configured to determine information on a deceleration of the first wheel end which results from the recovery and/or a deceleration of the second wheel end, and to control the braking device and/or the recovery device such that the deceleration of the first wheel end and the deceleration of the second wheel end are matched to each other, wherein the control unit is configured to determine the information on the deceleration of the first wheel end based on the recovered rotational energy.