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NEWS
Volvo wins UK safety gong
Long-time safety leader picks up safety award for its Cyclist Detection measureUpdate, May 28, 2013: Since this story was published, Volvo Australia has revealed that the upgraded City Safety system with Cyclist Detection will commence rolling out in local products from the MY14 update that is due during the fourth quarter of this year. Spokesman for the local arm, Oliver Peagam, confirmed with motoring.com.au that the XC90 SUV will not be retrofitted with the new safety technology as it nears the end of its effective design life. A new XC90 is understood to be in development.
Volvo has received a Fleet World Honours award in Britain for its pioneering work to keep cyclists safe on the road. Claiming a world first for its Cyclist Detection with Full Autobrake package, the Chinese Swede has already rolled the system out across virtually all its line-up, the only exception being the aging XC90 SUV.
It’s an extension of the company’s City Safety system, launched in 2007 with the XC60. Since then, the system has traced a steady path of improvement, with City Safety initially addressing stationary objects, followed by a pedestrian protection upgrade allowing it to respond to people stepping off the kerb ahead.
The cyclist protection package is largely built on improvements to vision processing algorithms, providing the system with better reflexes and improving its chances of responding to cyclists swerving out in front of the car.
The system combines a radar sensor built into the car's grille with a camera sitting ahead of the interior rear-view mirror. Marrying camera and radar by their own central processing unit, the system uses the radar to detect objects up ahead and measure the distance to them. It’s set up to give the vehicle an exceptionally wide field of vision, improving its advance warning, particularly of pedestrians yet to step off the kerb.
The high-res camera lets it differentiate the movement patterns of pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles in the same lane. The CPU melds incoming data into a continuous monitoring feed. It correlates data from both sources before triggering an emergency response in the braking system.
The company has announced the cyclist protection upgrade will be available in global markets from this month. In the absence of any available comment from Volvo, but taking into account the time lag for May-build cars to reach these shores, Aussie buyers can expect to see it here some time in Q3.
This is Volvo’s second consecutive Fleet World Honours safety award, conferred this year at the ceremony at Royal Automobile Club on London’s Pall Mall.
Fleet World Editor Steve Moody pointed to Volvo’s part in pushing safety technology ahead, with auto-braking systems not just saving lives, but cutting fleet repair costs by averting accidents.
“[This] latest innovation [illustrates] that the firm is fully focussed on not just protecting the occupants of its cars, but the wider world too.”
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Written byJeremy Bass
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