Volvo's Future-Forward Drive: Harnessing Autonomy for Safer Streets
July 28 2023,
As Volvo Cars steers into a new era, the company reaffirms its legacy of safety, quality, and innovation. Propelled by the ambition to achieve zero-carbon and zero-accident future, Volvo continues to invest in the development of innovative technologies designed to safeguard lives on the road.
Understanding the human experience is central to Volvo's development strategy for its future vehicles, Volvo aims to engineer cars that not only adapt to the driver but also to the environment. Its technological advancements focus on the evolution of cars that can assess, learn, and get safer over time through ongoing data interpretation and updates.
Rooted in extensive safety research and a deep understanding of human behavior, Volvo acknowledges that no matter how skilled, all drivers can be affected by emotions, tiredness, and distraction. These human elements often lead to split-second misjudgments on the road. In response, Volvo will create an invisible safety shield around its future vehicles, armed with advanced sensing technology. This will allow the car to not just interpret the external world but also the driver's state of mind.
A suite of state-of-the-art sensors including cameras, radars, and LiDAR constitutes the car's external sensory system. Powered by Volvo's core computing platform and software, these sensors coalesce to generate a 360-degree real-time view of the surroundings. Unfettered by human limitations like fatigue or distraction, they are programmed to react even when the driver is a millisecond too late. This advanced technology, capable of spotting small objects hundreds of meters away, works seamlessly across various light conditions and at highway speeds.
Volvo's interior safety systems serve as a watchful guardian for the driver. An array of special sensors and cameras are employed to monitor the driver's concentration using the company's in-house developed algorithms. The technology incorporated in their new model, the EX90, can detect signs of fatigue or distraction in the driver and respond accordingly. The system issues warnings, escalating in urgency, and is even equipped to safely stop the car and call for help in case of emergencies.
Significantly, Volvo's research indicates that the integration of these sensors and software could reduce serious injury or death due to accidents by up to 20%. It also suggests a potential 9% improvement in overall crash avoidance, potentially preventing millions of accidents over time. This represents a monumental stride towards Volvo's goal of making driving safer for all and symbolizes a significant advancement in automobile safety.
All these innovative technologies come together to create a sophisticated system, marking a significant stride towards fully autonomous vehicles. The ability of these vehicles to constantly learn from new data, adapt to their surroundings and the driver's state, and swiftly react to potential hazards is a fundamental building block of autonomy. Volvo's endeavor to refine and expand these features signifies its commitment to the future of self-driving cars. In essence, each technological breakthrough brings us closer to a future where the cars themselves shoulder the responsibility of safe driving, rendering the human errors and inconsistencies moot. Thus, Volvo's latest advancements are not merely safety features, but a clear roadmap towards the era of autonomous driving.
