As a pioneer of many of today’s safety technologies we take granted for — including the three-point seatbelt introduced by the Swedish brand in 1959 — Volvo announced more details on Friday on its planned efforts to develop more ground-breaking technologies for its future vehicles. And what better way is there to save lives than by avoiding accidents altogether?
By 2020, Volvo hopes its cars will not be involved in any crashes at all, thanks to technology that will allow cars to “communicate” between one another. One proposed measure would be a system that requires a government-built infrastructure using GPS technology that would provide advanced warning of road hazards, Automotive News reports suggest. If a leading car’s ABS or stability systems were engaged on a slippery road, for example, a warning would be beamed to following vehicles.
Less advanced systems we’ve heard rumblings of from other manufacturers include a system that monitors whether a driver is falling asleep and sounds an alarm or otherwise intervenes, and a proximity sensor that would warn drivers they are tailgating the car in front. The latter could advance to include automatic braking systems, at least at slow speeds, that could be triggered by pedestrians. Another pioneering system would involve automatic steering to avoid oncoming vehicles.
Such measures would certainly go a long way to proving recent intentions that have the automaker moving further upscale.
“We don’t accept that people lose their lives in aeroplane accidents, so why should we regard car accidents as inevitable?†says Volvo’s head of safety strategy, Jan Ivarsson.
