Volvo Presents Safety System For Avoiding Collisons At Low Speeds

04 December 2006

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Volvo has announced a unique ‘City Safety’ system that could help drivers avoid 50% of all rear-end, low speed accidents that often happen in urban environment or slow moving traffic.

‘City Safety’ is active up to 30km/h and keeps a watchful eye on traffic up to six metres in front of the car with the help of an optical radar system integrated into the upper part of the windscreen.

If the car in front suddenly brakes or is stationary, the system will automatically pre-charge the brakes to help the driver avoid an accident by slowing down in time or steering away from a potential collision. However, if a collision is imminent, the system will activate the car’s brakes automatically.

There are some limitations such as fog, mist, and snow, heavy rains but even if the windscreen is dirty, the driver is alerted via the car’s information display.

Now I was privy to testing this feature when I was invited to the Volvo Safety Centre in Sweden and whilst it felt weird the car braking for me, I could not help feeling that it would be a highly incompetent driver who was unaware of what the traffic in front was doing, that would benefit from this and do we need these types of drivers on our roads today?

Too much safety, me thinks, breeds complacency in drivers.

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