Designing safety features for maximum impact

PHOTO SUPPLIED

Volvo subjects its cars, including the new XC60 to rigorous safety testing.

Michael Banovsky

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

You may know that Volvo introduced the first three-point seat belts, in 1959. Or rear-facing child seats and childproof locks, in 1972. Driver's airbag? 1987.

If you take car safety seriously, you may even know that Volvo has an $81 million safety centre in Sweden where it researches vehicle construction using two 90-metre tubes that can crash cars at nearly any angle.

But you may not know that one of the key elements in the company's safety research is the Volvo Accident Investigation Team, which was formed in 1970. This team works with police in Sweden and analyzes accidents involving Volvos – more than 20,000 since its inception – to better understand how its vehicles can be made safer.

So when Volvo's head of safety strategy, Jan Ivarsson, says that the company's goal is to have nobody killed or injured in a Volvo by 2020, it's instructive to see the technologies it's focusing on.

For example, research showed that 75 per cent of accidents occur at speeds below 30 km/h – and half of those in city traffic. So standard in Volvo's new XC60, is an ingenious feature called City Safety.

The system keeps an eye on the traffic in front with the help of a laser sensor built into the windscreen's upper section at the same height as the rear-view mirror. It can detect vehicles that are up to six metres in front of the front bumper, stopping the car if necessary, but in most cases offering a warning to the driver.

If you're too slow to react? City Safety will try to avoid or reduce the effects of a collision by preparing the brakes or braking automatically and disabling the accelerator.

A natural progression from this technology is the ability to "see" objects and pedestrians – and Volvo says this will be introduced soon.

Above city speeds? On some models, like the S80 sedan, Volvo offers Collision Warning with Auto Brake, which can "see" 48 degrees of traffic in front of the car, warning of possible collisions. If a collision is unavoidable, the car will brake automatically via hydraulic pump activation to lessen the impact. Readying the brakes if the car detects an imminent collision is nothing new – Acura, for one, has offered that functionality for a few years – but the Volvo system applies maximum force without driver intervention.

And for things beside the car, Volvo offers BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) that will warn you if another vehicle is in your blind spot.

Volvo even has driver fatigue covered. With Driver Alert Control, offered on most of its models, a camera mounted in the windshield checks lane markings, to determine whether or not a driver is behaving normally. If steering becomes erratic or sloppy, the system will flash a message – and a coffee cup icon – that suggests the driver take a break.

Other carmakers, like Mercedes, Lincoln and Acura offer blind-spot warning, but Volvo uses a small camera mounted underneath the rear-view mirrors and has been tuned to specifically pick out the smallest of objects – including motorcycles.

You may think cameras, sensors, and lights are overkill, but down to the smallest details Volvo has focused on safety. Introduced on the XC90 SUV, for instance, are child booster seats integrated into the rear seats. They pop up, allowing a child too large for a car seat – but too small for seat belts – to be seated safely. The V70 and XC60 also feature this functionality, but if you'd like pop-up booster seats from any other carmaker, you're out of luck.

Volvo has only one convertible in its lineup (the C70), so you'd think it wouldn't bother developing an expensive safety system for such limited sales. In fact, it has fitted its Roll Over Protection System to the C70 since 1998.

The system consists of two high-strength steel hoops that automatically pop up to protect the heads of the convertible's occupants if the vehicle detects a high likelihood of a rollover. The system works in conjunction with the only application of side curtain airbags in a convertible, making the C70 one of the safest drop-tops on the market. Other convertible manufacturers have since copied Volvo's pop-up roll bar.

Eliminating injuries or death for anyone in a Volvo seems like an impossible goal, but it's far closer than we think. Especially once other manufacturers tend to copy the idea – making vehicles safer for everyone.

More videos from Wheels.ca and our partners