Volvo Promises Death-proof Cars By 2020
Making safe cars isn’t good enough apparently. Volvo wants to make them death-proof. Indeed a very bold promise but that’s exactly what Volvo promised to do by 2020.
The Swedish automaker, now owned by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, has been collecting data on how people die in its vehicles and are using this data to improve build better vehicles. According to data from the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, there are nine vehicle models, including the Volvo XC90, in which no one has died in the US in at least four years.
Of course, Volvo cannot guarantee your safety if you’re really dumb or really suicidal but it endeavors to make its cars so smart and safe that by 2020, no one will get injured or die in its vehicles. Sitting in a Volvo could eventually be safer than walking down a flight of stairs. 2020 is also their deadline for autonomous vehicles.
The death-proof features will utiilize a collection of cameras and sensors to provide a safe ride. Some of these features are Adaptive Cruise Control which uses radar to sense the speed and distance of the vehicle in front; Lane Keep Assist that makes use of cameras to detect lanes and help steer the car to stay within one; Collision Avoidance, employs cameras, radar and sensors and will deploy brakes to avoid or minimize collision impact as well as Pedestrian and Large Animal Detection to avoid running into any of these. These features are already present in the latest Volvo vehicles in some form.
According to Volvo safety engineer Erik Coelingh, “With the development of full autonomy we are going to push the limits of automotive safety because if you make a fully autonomous vehicle you have to think through everything that potentially can happen with a car.”
And as Lex Kerssemakers, CEO of Volvo Cars North America. neatly put it, “If you meet Swedish engineers, they’re pretty genuine. They don’t say things when they don’t believe in it.”
So take note that by 2020, it’s nearly impossible to commit suicide by walking in front of a Volvo.
