The IT Nerd

This Volvo is packed with all sorts of technology that does everything from navigate you from point A to B to potentially avoid an accident. Let me give you a rundown of what you get starting with the safety features:

• Adaptive Cruise Control: When you turn this on the car will not only maintain a set speed, it will adjust the speed relative to the cars in front of you and keep a distance that you can choose between the two of you. If the car in front of you slows down, the Volvo will slow down. If the car in front of you speeds up, the Volvo will speed up.
• Distance Alert: You pre-set a distance that you consider “safe” for you to be following another car. If you drive closer than that distance, a red light will appear in bottom of the windshield within your line of sight (in other words, your passenger will likely not see this) and the red light will become more intense the closer you get. That’s a hint that you’re too close and you need to back off a bit. If it thinks that there’s a potential for an avoidable collision, the red light will flash and you’ll hear beeping. I had this happen to me and it does really get your attention. If it thinks a crash is unavoidable, the brakes will activate.
• Blind Spot Information System: It will warn you when there’s something in your blind spot by turning on an amber light inside the car. As I noted in part 3 of this review, the light is well placed inside the car so that you are always aware of what is around you.
• Cross Traffic Alert: You will find this handy if you’re backing out of a space and you cannot see what is on either side of you. It’s handy for trips to the mall and to Home Depot. When I tried this, it not only picked up cars, but it also picked up a cyclist that I didn’t see. Nice!
• Lane Departure Warning: The cameras in the windshield constantly monitor where the S60 is relative to the lane you’re currently in. If you start to stray outside that lane, you get a warning. If you continue to wander across lanes and you have the cruise control on, the car will disable the cruise control. That of course slows the car down if you don’t have your foot on the pedal which forces you to take control. You then have to turn off the car and turn it on to re-enable cruise control. All of that is part of the Driver Alert System which is invaluable on long drives.
• Road Sign Information: The camera in the windshield will read the speed limit signs and display them in the gauge cluster. If you go more than 10% faster than the speed limit. The display will flash. Handy for avoiding speeding tickets.
• City Safety With Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Detection: Now I wrote up an explanation of City Safety With Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Detection a while back and videotaped how it worked when I tested the 2013 S60. But it’s been enhanced for 2014. It now detects cyclists. In a city like Toronto, that is a very welcome improvement.
• There’s dual xenon headlights that turn in the direction that you turn the wheel. That way you can virtually see around corners. Also worth noting, the headlights and taillights are of the automatic variety. Thus you never have to worry about when to turn them on or off, or if you’ve left them on by accident.
• In the event a frontal impact, the engine is designed to slide under the passenger compartment and the steering column is designed to collapse. That way the driver will not be crushed by either.
• In the event of a side collision, the occupants are protected by Volvo’s unique Side Impact Protection System. The steel framework of the car – including the front seats – is designed and reinforced to help displace the impact of a side-collision away from the occupants to other parts of the car body and help prevent intrusion into the cabin.
• In terms of airbags, you get 6. Front airbags for driver and passenger along with side impact airbags. Plus you get head curtain airbags.
• There’s whiplash protection called WHIPS included to protect you from the negative effects of a rear impact.
• The hood of the S60 is designed to lessen the impact forces on a pedestrian if you are unlucky enough to hit a pedestrian.
• There’s a backup camera included in the 7″ screen. It works quite well as you can zoom in on objects and helps guide you into parking spaces. As you approach objects such as other cars or curbs, it will let you know where they are so you can avoid hitting them both visually and audibly. It picked up low curbs as little as a couple of inches in height which is the best that I’ve seen from a system like this. There is a CAM button on the center console that allows you to activate the camera at will. I used it a few times while parking to confirm that I was fully in a parking space. One thing to note is that the camera is exposed to the elements, so one wonders how well it will work in winter.

All of these features mean that the Volvo S60 gets a (IIHS) Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Top Safety Pick+ award.

The audio system called Volvo Premium Sound System is nothing short of impressive. Those I shuttled around all week long commented was the best car audio system they’ve heard. You get USB and 1/8″ audio inputs. That’s tied to the infotainment system called Sensus which among other things allows you to pair your phone via Bluetooth (which is an easy process) for hands free calling and connect your iPod or iPhone via the USB ports to play music. In the case of the latter, I simply plugged my iPhone 5 into the USB port and I had complete access to my playlists and everything else. Any song be it a MP3 or a AAC file purchased from the iTunes store worked. Plus I got the track info from each song displayed on the 7″ screen located in the center console. I could also stream music via Bluetooth and get the track info displayed on the screen. But I would have to select the song or songs I wanted to play from the iPhone which is typical for these systems.

The 7″ screen isn’t a touchscreen. Instead, you control it via a scroll wheel which is similar to one that you find on a mouse along with an exit button on the steering wheel. There’s a redundant knob with buttons on the center console as well. You use the wheel or the knob to highlight the option you want and then you either click the wheel or press OK on the knob to choose it. To back out of a menu option, hit the exit button in either case. The menus are logically laid out and it will only take you a few minutes to figure out where everything is.

The infotainment system also allows you to use voice commands to control it. Now there are two things that stood out for me when it comes to that. First there’s a brief tutorial that explains how the system works. That saves you having to crack open the manual (which is a very good one by the way and as usual, I do recommend you read it). One note, it only works while the vehicle is in park. That’s a very nice touch. The other thing is that there is voice training that allows up to two people to train the system to better recognize their voices. That helps to improve the accuracy of the voice recognition and accounts for accents. Speaking of that, I found it easy to use the voice navigation. For example I could enter addresses into the navigation system, though you have to do it the way the system wants you to do it. For example if you want to go to 1234 Main Street, you have to say 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 for the street number. That’s not a bad thing as it guarantees a high accuracy rate. Another thing to note is that as you use your voice, the screen as well as audio will provide you with suggested choices. If you use it enough times, you’ll be able to eventually use it as your main way to control the infotainment system. My advice, spend an hour or two in your garage playing with it until you get comfortable with it before trying to use it on the road.

The navigation system was very competent in terms of it’s routing and it even displayed traffic and construction ahead of me. It is capable of displaying accidents as well. That allows the system to quickly re-route you if required. I noted that quite a few times, it would offer up a route change on the 7″ screen and if I was smart enough to take it, it would usually save me time. The navigation system is also highly customizable. You can set up a single screen, or split screens with their own views and zoom levels. It should be noted that Volvo owners get two free updates for the maps. I must admit that the navigation systems inside the Volvo cars I’ve tested are quickly growing on me.

Finally, you get keyless entry using Volvo’s Personal Car Communicator. You simply walk up to the car, grab the driver’s door handle, get in, hit the start button and drive away. You can customize this behavior to open one door or all doors. You can also tie the settings for the mirrors and the seats to the key fob. Plus each key fob can have it’s own unique settings. That way the car will automatically set itself up to that driver. The fob itself will lock or unlock the doors. Turn on the headlights to allow you to find the car in a parking lot, or confirm from a distance the car has been locked properly or the alarm was set off. Not to mention the always popular panic button along with rear trunk opening and closing functions. There’s one other thing. When you get out of the car, you close the door and simply touch an indent on the driver’s door. The car locks and you know it’s locked because it will beep and the side mirrors fold in if you have the latter set up to do that. Net result: You never actually have to take the key fob out of your pocket to get into, drive and lock the car.

The safety technology is nothing short of cutting edge and impressive. If you want a car that will keep you safe, look no further. As for the infotainment system, it’s great at what it does and is well executed. If you put in the time to learn how to use it, you’ll find that it works very well for you. Other technology is there to make your life easier. It’s all put together very well.

The final part of this review will tie up some loose ends and I’ll give you my final verdict.