On March 20, Volvo Cars revealed a new step in its ambitions to end fatalities in its cars by addressing the issues of intoxication and distraction.
Apart
from speeding, which the company aims to help combat with a top speed
limit, intoxication and distraction are two other primary areas of
concern for traffic safety. Together, these three areas constitute the
main ‘gaps’ towards Volvo Cars’ vision of a future with zero traffic
fatalities and require a focus on human behavior in the company’s
safety work as well.
For example, figures by NHTSA show that in
the United States, almost 30 per cent of all traffic fatalities in
vehicles in 2017 involved intoxicated drivers.
Volvo Cars
believes intoxication and distraction should be addressed by installing
in-car cameras and other sensors that monitor the driver and allow the
car to intervene if a clearly intoxicated or distracted driver does not
respond to warning signals and is risking an accident involving serious
injury or death.
That intervention could involve limiting the
car’s speed, alerting the Volvo on Call assistance service and, as a
final course of action, actively slowing down and safely parking the
car.
“When it comes to safety, our aim is to avoid accidents
altogether rather than limit the impact when an accident is imminent
and unavoidable,” says Henrik Green, Senior Vice President, Research
& Development at Volvo Cars. “In this case, cameras will monitor
for behavior that may lead to serious injury or death.”
Examples
of such behavior include a complete lack of steering input for extended
periods of time, drivers who are detected to have their eyes closed or
off the road for extended periods of time, as well as extreme weaving
across lanes or excessively slow reaction times.
A driver
monitoring system as described above is an important element of
allowing the car to actively make decisions in order to help avoid
accidents that could result in severe injuries or death.
“There
are many accidents that occur as a result of intoxicated drivers,” says
Trent Victor, Professor of Driver Behaviour at Volvo Cars. “Some people
still believe that they can drive after having had a drink, and that
this will not affect their capabilities. We want to ensure that people
are not put in danger as a result of intoxication.”
Introduction
of the cameras on all Volvo models will start on the next generation of
Volvo’s scalable SPA2 vehicle platform in the early 2020s. Details on
the exact amount of cameras and their positioning in the interior will
follow at a later stage.
Volvo’s most recent announcement should
be viewed together with the company limiting the top speed on all its
cars to 112 mph from model year 2021, in order to send a strong signal
about the dangers of speeding.
The company wants to start a
conversation about whether car makers have the right or maybe even the
obligation to install technology in cars that changes their drivers’
behavior. Both the speed limit and the installation of in-car cameras
illustrate how car makers can take active responsibility for the aim of
achieving zero traffic fatalities by supporting better driver behavior.
Volvo
Cars also revealed the Care Key, which allows Volvo drivers to impose
limitations on the car’s top speed on all cars from model year 2021,
before lending their car to others.
The Care Key, the monitoring
cameras, the speed limit as well as existing driver assistance systems
all serve one single aim: to support safer driving.