The IT Nerd

When you drive in an urban area, there’s more cars in proximity to you, plus you need to need to be aware of pedestrians. That makes driving a challenge and you have to have your wits about you. But there are times where no matter how attentive you are, you might not be able to avoid an accident fast enough.

Volvo has thought of this and have come up with a couple of systems to keep you safe. The first system that we’ll look at is called City Safety and here’s how it works.

You are driving down a busy city street. The car in front of your brakes suddenly. If you can’t react fast enough, you will hit the car and cause injuries to yourself and the occupants of the other car. This is where City Safety comes in. If City Safety determines that a collision is likely, the brakes are pre-charged and the driver is warned of the danger. If the driver remains inactive, City Safety engages the brakes automatically. While this system will work up to speeds of 50 KM/H, the system may actually help you to avoid an accident if the speed that you’re travelling at is 15 KM/H or less. If you’re moving at something faster than 15 KM/H and the collision is unavoidable, the system will reduce the speed of your Volvo so that the force of the impact is less. That means that any injuries that are a result of the impact are less severe.

Now let’s look at Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection With Full Auto Brake:

Pedestrian And Cyclist Detection With Full Auto Brake works like this. The system consists of a radar unit integrated into the car’s grille, a camera fitted in front of the interior rear-view mirror, and a central control unit. The high-resolution camera makes it possible to spot the moving pattern of pedestrians and cyclists. If a cyclist or pedestrian heading in the same direction suddenly swerves out in front of you as you’re approaching from behind and a collision is imminent, there is an instant warning and full braking power is applied.

Now you might be wondering how effective these systems are. Consumers Reports reported on a study done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS)  on City Safety  and here’s what they had to say:

Analysts looked at claim data for 2011-2012 Volvo S60 sedans and 2009-2012 Volvo XC60 SUVs and compared the results to Volvo models without City Safety. They found drivers are less likely to be in a crash with City Safety, than without.

There was a 16-percent lower claim frequency for property damage liability in the S60 and 15-percent less in the XC60. For bodily injury liability, the S60 had 18-percent fewer claims and the XC60 had 33-percent fewer claims than vehicles without the technology. Claim frequency under collision coverage was 9 percent lower for the S60 and 20 percent lower for the XC60.

At the very least, City Safety will save money and perhaps lower insurance rates for you and other drivers. More importantly, both City Safety and Pedestrian And Cyclist Detection With Full Auto Brake can potentially save lives. Something that is not trivial in my mind.

These systems are now available either as standard equipment or as an optional feature in most Volvo cars. These two systems continue the tradition of Volvo being a leader in terms of automotive safety. Which should put Volvo to the top of your list if you want a car that protects those inside the car and those outside it.

This entry was posted on June 19, 2013 at 8:24 am and is filed under Products with tags Volvo. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.