Volvo’s 2020 Vision
We are the most human-centric car brand in the motor industry. Our founders Assar Gabrielsson & Gustav Larson said in 1927: “Cars are driven by people. Therefore the guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo is – and must remain – safety.”
As such, safety has always been one of Volvo’s core values because people have been at the centre of everything we do at Volvo.
In the quest for the ultimate vision of an accident free traffic environment, Volvo Car Corporation’s bold target is that no one will be killed or injured in a new Volvo by 2020.
“Zero is the one and only alternative for us. As the leader in car safety we can’t accept that people are killed or injured just because they want to transport themselves from A to B,” says Jan Ivarsson, head of Safety Strategy at Volvo Cars.
If we see an aircraft crash it’s a disaster that we remember forever. But when passing a traffic accident where someone may have been injured or killed, people are often more concerned with the delay in traffic. It is this attitude, that traffic accidents are an inevitable part of our daily lives that Volvo wants to challenge with its Safety Vision 2020.
The fist step toward an accident-free future is to answer the important question: What is zero? In order to achieve tangible results, we need to be realistic.
“Time after time we have seen the impossible become reality. This will, of course, also happen in a traffic environment that is considered accident free. But our aim is to come so close to zero that one single car accident is defined as a disaster, not an acceptable part of our daily lives,” says Jan Ivarsson.
Designed around You – Increased focus on preventing accidents
Actually, working towards zero has been the main safety route for Volvo ever since the company was founded back in 1927. The aim has always been to make every new car model safer than the previous one.
“In recent years, focus has shifted from protection to prevention and we are making continuous progress. New technology in Volvos such as Collision Warning with Auto Brake and City Safety can warn and assist you in difficult situations, in order to mitigate or avoid an accident. Our statistics show that we have reduced the number of severe injuries with approximately 50 percent since the 1960’s,” says Jan Ivarsson.
Volvo Cars’ strategy includes a broader view of safety than the traditional focus on accidents. The safety experts apply a holistic perspective where the safety aspects can be divided into five phases:
- Normal driving: The driver is well informed and can stay alert.
- Conflict: Technology helps the driver to handle a difficult situation.
- Avoidance: The car acts automatically to avoid a collision if the driver fails to react.
- Damage reduction: The car’s safety systems help to reduce the crash energy in order to minimize the effect on the occupants.
- After collision: The car automatically calls for assistance and facilitates the rescue work.
“The main challenge is to keep the driver in the normal driving mode. To reach our zero vision, we have to deal with most of the potential issues already in this stage, and preferably help the driver back to normal mode if a critical situation occurs,” says Jan Ivarsson.
Designed around You – Intelligent warning and braking technologies
Intelligent safety systems are probably the best example of how you Volvo is designed around you. Modern Volvos can be equipped with a number of intelligent technologies that detect potential dangers and help the driver deal with them – either through a warning or, if necessary, by automatic braking.
“When you introduce an automatic system you have to make sure that you don’t create a more dangerous situation than the one you want to prevent. It is not hard to make the car brake automatically. The challenge is to know when it must brake. The detection technology must be reliable,” says Jan Ivarsson . He adds: “We prioritise the issues that are the most common and dangerous in real-life traffic. We have already introduced a number of preventive systems that detect moving and stationary vehicles as well another that detects pedestrians, in front of the car.
“Speaking” cars will be Designed around You
In the future cars must be able to communicate and exchange information with the infrastructure and other vehicles on the road. In principle a future Volvo can “speak” to an oncoming vehicle, maybe communicating: “You and I are about to collide head on. If our drivers don’t react we have to do something. Let’s steer clear of the danger.”
The major challenge to make this scenario possible is to find a common language for the communication. A Volvo has to be able to communicate with vehicles of other makes and all vehicles have to be able to exchange information with the traffic environment.
“We believe that the key is to use systems that are already available for other purposes. The air around us is already charged with communication, most of it used for pleasure or convenience. Adding traffic safety communication to this existing architecture is a far more sensible route than trying to invent and agree on a completely new “language” for communicating in the traffic environment,” says Jan Ivarsson.
Co-operation with other players
The quest for an accident free future also includes a close co-operation with other players in society.
Volvo Cars is working together with the Swedish Road Administration in order to promote the co-operation between vehicles and the infrastructure.
“They also have a zero vision, so we have mutual interests. We are coordinating our efforts and research projects in order to maximise the results,” says Jan Ivarsson.
There are two interesting trends that have significant implications of the development of a safer traffic environment:
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The growing number of elderly drivers with an active lifestyle and a higher demand for individual mobility than previous generations.
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The development of more support systems in the cars.
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Volvo is building up valuable knowledge in both these areas through major research projects within the company and in co-operation with other players.
Study of drivers in intersections so our systems can be Designed around You
Volvo Cars’ Senior Safety Advisor Thomas Broberg is behind a research project at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) in order to study driver’s visual behaviour at intersections (also see separate release).
“There is nothing in the study that indicates that older drivers are more dangerous at intersections. However, there is a difference in how older drivers and younger drivers handle situations. How they position the car, for example, and how the driver moves his/her head and eyes. These findings are valuable to us when we design our cars and develop new safety systems,” says Thomas Broberg.
In this way your Volvo can be Designed around You and your specific driving habits.
Camera equipped Volvos in European field test
Volvo is also part of the European project euroFOT (Field Operational Tests). About 100 Volvo’s are equipped with technology that monitors the driver’s behaviour. The aim is to gain more knowledge about how we react as human beings in complex traffic situations.
The cars are equipped with cameras that record the driver’s head and eye movements, together with a data logger that records the information from the safety features in the car. Other cameras will film the driver’s view of the road. The signals and the videos are saved on a hard disk from where the researchers can analyse the driver’s head and eye movement patterns.
“This helps us to better understand the interaction between driver, car and the traffic environment. The interface between human and machine (HMI) is one of our key research areas. All instruments and functions must be easy to understand and use. It is vital that new information and support technology in our cars is designed and coordinated in the right way. The information must help the driver without being a distraction,” says Jan Ivarsson.
In short: understanding people and their behaviour in cars helps us design better Volvos for you
