* World first auto brake when turning in front of an
oncoming vehicle * World first solution focusing on accidental road departure *
Most advanced standard safety package on the market * Automatically follows
vehicle in front in slow-moving queues
* Five times more Ultra High Strength Steel (boron steel)
than first-generation XC90
Volvo Cars’ all-new
XC90 – which will be revealed in August – will offer the most comprehensive
and technologically sophisticated standard safety package available in the
automotive industry. The new technologies will take the company a significant
step closer to its vision that no one will be killed or seriously injured in a
new Volvo car by 2020.
The standard safety package on the all-wheel drive, seven
seat premium SUV will include two world first safety technologies: a run-off
road protection package and auto brake at intersection capability. These
innovations will form part of a suite of safety features that will make the
all-new XC90 one of the safest cars ever made.
“Our starting point on safety is the same today as it was 87
years ago: real-life situations,” says Dr Peter
Mertens, Senior Vice President Research and Development of Volvo Car Group.
“We study data. We crunch numbers. We innovate. The result is one of the safest
cars ever made.”
World first number 1:
Run-off road protection
Run-off road is a common accident type with different
causes, such as driver distraction, fatigue or poor weather conditions. For
example, half of all traffic fatalities in the United States are road departure
accidents, while in Sweden, single-vehicle accidents involve one third of all
fatal and severe injury crashes with passenger cars.
Volvo is deeply troubled by these statistics. Even though
there are currently no regulatory or rating tests to examine a car’s ability to
handle run-off road accidents, the company has decided to develop the
technology to protect occupants should these situations occur.
“Committing to safety is not about passing a test or getting
a ranking,” says Prof. Lotta Jakobsson, Senior Technical Specialist Safety at
Volvo Cars Safety Centre. “It is about finding out how and why accidents and
injuries occur and then developing the technology to prevent them. We lead, the
industry follows.”
Volvo Cars developed
Safe Positioning to address these situations.
The Safe Positioning capability means that in a
run-off road scenario, the all-new Volvo XC90 detects what is happening and the
front safety belts are tightened to keep the occupants in position. The belts
are firmly tightened as long as the car is in motion.
To help prevent spine injuries, energy-absorbing
functionality between the seat and seat frame cushions the vertical forcesthat
can arise when the car encounters a hard landing in the terrain. The solution
is capable of reducing the vertical occupant forces by up to one third. This
counteracts spine injuries, which are serious and relatively frequent
consequences of these situations.
The XC90 also
features technologies that help the driver avoid run-off road scenarios:
The Lane Keeping Aid applies extra steering torque if
the car is about to leave the lane unintentionally, while Driver Alert Control,
which is also standard, detects and warns tired or inattentive drivers. It even
has Rest Stop Guidance, which directs the driver to the nearest rest
area.
World first number 2:
Auto brake at intersections
The XC90 is the first car in the world with technology that
features automatic braking if the driver turns in front of an oncoming car.
This is a common scenario at busy city crossings as well as on highways, where
the speed limits are higher. The all-new Volvo XC90 detects a potential crash
and brakes automatically in order to avoid a collision or mitigate the
consequences of a crash.
“These two world firsts are further examples of how
new technologies target substantial real-life traffic problems. This strategy
moves us closer and closer to our ambition that by 2020 no one should be killed
or seriously injured in a new Volvo,” says Prof. Lotta Jakobsson.
Broad range of Safety
features for the all-new XC90
There is a wide range of other safety innovations available
on the all-new XC90. They include the following:
Pre-crash protection
in rear impacts
Rearward facing radars detect if a rear impact is imminent
and safety belts are tightened in advance in order to keep the occupant in a
good position. Lights also start flashing to warn the driver behind, and the
brakes are activated to help reduce the impact on the occupants.
Together with Volvo Cars’ new seat design, which
integrates the next generation of the groundbreaking Whiplash Protection System
(WHIPS), this new holistic rear impact pre-crash function helps reduce whiplash
injuries.
Groundbreaking
rollover prevention and protection
The all-new XC90 comes with the latest generation Roll
Stability Control as standard. The system uses advanced sensors to calculate
the risk of rolling over. If the risk is assessed as high, engine torque is
restricted and some braking force is applied to one or more wheels to
counteract the rollover tendency.
If a rollover is inevitable, the Inflatable Curtains
are activated. They cover all three seat rows for an extended period of time to
help prevent head injuries.
All seven seats
in the XC90 have pyrotechnical safety belt pre-tensioners that also activate in
rollover situations.
City Safety auto
braking functions
City Safety will become the umbrella name for all of Volvo
Cars’ auto brake functions – which are standard equipment in the all-new XC90.
The purpose of the new collision avoidance system is
to assist the driver in case there is a high risk of collision with another
vehicle, pedestrian or cyclist through an intuitive warning strategy and a
brake support system. If a collision is almost unavoidable, the system will
provide autonomous braking when the driver fails to respond to the imminent
threat.
“City Safety is one of the most advanced standard crash
prevention offers you can find in a modern car. It now covers vehicles,
cyclists and pedestrians in front of the car, day and night,” explains Lotta
Jakobsson. “We are now able to cover the whole span from dusk to dawn by a
smarter and faster high-sensitive camera combined with advanced exposure
control.”
Extended Road Sign
Information
The XC90 is the first car on the market with Road Sign
Information technology as standard. It has been further enhanced to show an
extended selection of road signs in the digital display in front of the driver,
such as various types of supplementary signs.
Covers the blind
spots
The Blind Spot Information System informs about vehicles in
the blind spots. It also alerts the driver to vehicles that are approaching
fast from behind.
Queue Assist
Queue Assist enables safe and comfortable driving by
following the vehicle in front in slow-moving queues. Acceleration, braking and
steering are controlled automatically.
“Distraction and inattentiveness are the most common cause
of accidents in modern traffic. The Adaptive Cruise Control with Queue Assist
makes driving safer and more relaxed in monotonous stop-and-go traffic by
adding steering assistance to the speed adaption,” explains Prof. Lotta
Jakobsson.
Stronger in every
sense
To help keep the occupant space inside intact in a crash,
the all-new XC90 has literally been made stronger in every sense. This is
achieved by more extensive use of hot-formed boron steel, which is the
strongest type of steel presently used in the car body industry.
The complete safety cage around the occupants is made from
hot-formed boron steel and is designed for maximum occupant protection in all
types of crash scenarios. The hot-formed steel amounts to about 40 per cent of
the total body weight.
“This is approximately five times more than the first
generation XC90. To our knowledge, this high usage of high-strength steel is
unique compared with our competitors,” says Prof. Lotta Jakobsson.
Vision 2020
Volvo Cars’s vision is to design cars that should not crash.
In the short term, the aim is that by 2020 no one should be killed or injured
in a new Volvo car. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that some 1.2
million people are killed and more than 50 million wounded in traffic accidents
every year. These figures are expected to increase rapidly if no action is
taken. Volvo is determined to take the lead by using its vision of a
collision-free future as a guiding principle.
The Volvo Cars Traffic Accident Research Team has
investigated traffic accidents since 1970. Today, its accident database
contains information about 43,400 accidents.
By using knowledge from real traffic situations in the
research, Volvo has learned how to design cars that offer a very high level of
safety in collisions. The company regards this as a very important base of
knowledge when identifying high-tech solutions that can help to avoid or
mitigate accidents entirely. In order to take this a step further, the Traffic
Accident Research Team not only studies crashed cars but also investigates
driving scenarios, including driver behaviour, in order to learn more about
what can lead to hazardous traffic situations.
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