Volvo’s Cars To Curb Bad Human Behaviour — Does Human Behaviour Limit Safety Technologies?

Volvo announces plans and techniques to be used by the company to curb speeding, intoxication and driver distraction. Volvo's cars are easily the safest machines on earth, but Volvo wants to take it a step further and make its cars much safer than they already are. The new plans are in line with the company's Vision 2020 plan.

Volvo’s Cars To Curb Bad Human Behaviour

It was in 2007 that Jan Ivarsson, Volvo's senior technical advisor for safety had announced the Vision 2020 plans. According to Vision 2020, Volvo set an ambitious goal to reach zero serious injuries or fatalities in its cars.

Well, when it comes to technology, Volvo has clearly done their best with driver aids, active and passive safety systems, airbags, etc. Cars are becoming safer by the day with all manufacturers trying to pack their cars with safety features.

ABS has been implemented on almost all cars on sale in India and in International markets. Today, there are more cars than ever before, that are equipped with airbags. However, fatalities and serious injuries caused due to accidents are still on the rise, and it isn't the technology that is failing us.

Volvo’s Cars To Curb Bad Human Behaviour

It is bad human behaviour and human error that is causing these incidents. Well, Volvo too has come to the same conclusion and has accused bad human behaviour of being the limiting factor in the Vision 2020 plan. The company has therefore has announced new plans to help curb human error as well.

The first issue Volvo wanted to address is, speeding. Earlier this month, Volvo announced plans to electronically limit all its cars to a maximum speed of 180km/h. Now, Volvo has gone a step ahead and is planning to install GPS-enabled speed limiting. So, if a Volvo car is being driven through a school zone or a hospital zone, the car would figure it out using GPS signals and cut down on speed automatically.

The next human error is quite simply the biggest cause for accidents - Intoxication and Distraction. Volvo is working on a camera-based technology that detects movement in the driver's eyes and tells the vehicle if the driver is distracted or intoxicated.

Volvo’s Cars To Curb Bad Human Behaviour

Breathalyzers work to an extent, but according to Volvo, the camera-based system is more effective as it helps detect not just alcohol-related intoxication, but also detects, drugs, usage of mobile phones, etc.

Volvo Cars' CEO Hakan Samuelsson was quoted as saying, "Do we have the right to intervene, let the car intervene, depending on the ability of the driver? Maybe we even have the obligation to do so."

Thoughts On Volvo's Safety Systems To Curb Driver Error

Volvo is one of the few companies who have intently been working on autonomous cars. The advantages are obvious, the absence of a human driver just means that there is the absence of human error. But before the world gets used to having autonomous cars on the roads, Volvo has planned these safety initiatives to curb driver error.

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Read more on: #volvo #auto news
Article Published On: Friday, March 22, 2019, 11:52 [IST]
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