Safety First
Who’s the leading car manufacturer when it comes to safety? Volvo has to be the obvious answer, as they are amazing at coming up with ingenious ideas for not only keeping passengers safe but pedestrians as well. But here’s another world first from Volvo. Doug Speck, Senior Vice President Marketing, Sales and Customer Service at Volvo Car Group, introduced another trailblazing safety feature that is able to distinguish and detect a cyclist and then automatically brake for any cyclists that swerve out in front of the car. Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection with full auto brake consists of a radar unit that sits unified with the car’s grille, a camera that is fitted in front of the interior rear-view mirror and a central control unit. The camera defines the type of object in front of the car, and its high-resolution makes it possible to spot the moving pattern of pedestrians and cyclists. The radar has been designed to detect objects in front of the car while calculating the distance that remains between the car and the object. All information from the radar and camera are sent to the central control unit which continuously monitors and evaluates the current traffic state.
The Volvo team have enhanced the present detection and auto brake technology which is used in many new cars, today. Volvo have called their cycle detection and response system: the Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection with full auto brake. All new Volvo cars will become equipped with pedestrian detection that incorporates this new cyclist detection technology.
Research has shown that about 50 per cent of all cyclists that are killed in Europe have collided with a car. It’s exciting to see how valuable and how massive this new safety feature will help save cyclists lives.
Volvo states that the Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection with full auto brake will be available in the new Volvo V40, S60, V60, XC60, V70, XC70 and S80 models in the second half of this year.
Level 2, 9 Help Street