Scenario: You’re driving down a winding country road. Your view of the road conditions ahead is limited and you cannot see what lies around corners. Suddenly, you get an alert from your instrument panel – there is an accident ahead. This prompts you to decelerate and drive on cautiously and true enough, as you go around the next curve, there is a car that has just been involved in an accident and rescuers are standing on the road. Thanks to the warning, you were prepared and did not cause another accident.
The scenario is not uncommon and there is now technology which can provide the early warning described. Not surprisingly, it is from Volvo, which has long been a pioneer of automotive safety technologies.
Real-time data
The new active safety system is called Accident Ahead Alert and can alert drivers of accidents ahead directly using real-time data from a traffic management centre. The location data is provided by national road authorities and compatible cars, starting with other Volvo cars.
The connected safety feature, which can instantly alert the driver about a traffic accident up to a few hundred metres ahead, will be available in compatible Volvo models (90, 60 and 40 series) in Europe, starting in Denmark.
“Using our groundbreaking connected safety technology, our Accident Ahead Alert can help Volvo drivers avoid unpleasant surprises, while contributing to making roads safer for all,” said Asa Haglund, Head of Volvo Cars Safety Centre. “Thanks to our collaboration with the Danish Road Directorate and other partners in the Data for Road Safety ecosystem, we can introduce this new feature and continue our leadership in safety innovations.”
Volvo Cars’ cloud
Volvo Cars’ industry-first connected safety technology, which was introduced in 2016, uses Volvo Cars’ cloud, based on real-time data. It allows Volvo cars to communicate with each other and alert drivers of nearby slippery road conditions and hazards. In the same way, drivers can now be alerted to accidents ahead at any time of the day.
Volvo plans to integrate more traffic data shared by other partners in the European Data for Road Safety ecosystem, including national traffic management centres in other countries and cars from other brands.
Unfortunately, it will probably not be available in Malaysia for some time to come though Volvo could still provide the system that allows its vehicles to communicate with each other.
For Volvo car owners, it’s easy to contribute to road safety by opting for data-sharing. All the driver need to do is to simply activate it using the ‘connected safety’ option in the car’s centre display. The car will then be able to alert the driver of an accident ahead by using the hazard light alert in the dashboard, and if available, the head-up display.
