Volvo Cars will soon introduce a ground-breaking, industry-first, connected safety system that allows their cars to “communicate with each other” and warn drivers of potential hazards on the road.
The cloud-based system, called the Hazard Light Alert and Slippery Road Alert, was first introduced in 2016 in Volvo’s 90 series cars in Norway and Sweden.
These features will come as standard in all Volvo vehicles by the year 2020 and can be retrofitted into selected models.
Safety research by Volvo showed that alerting people to dangers ahead in a timely manner and allowing them to adapt with time to spare, can radically reduce the risk of accidents.
Just like when Volvo left their safety belt patents open to the automotive industry to replicate and follow suit – all in the name of safety – Volvo is also inviting the car industry to join them in sharing data related to traffic safety.
When activated, the Hazard Light Alert sends a signal to all nearby Volvo cars connected to the cloud service, warning drivers to help avoid potential accidents.
On the other hand, the Slippery Road Alert increases the driver’s awareness of current road conditions and what’s ahead by anonymously collecting road surface information from cars further up front and warning drivers approaching a slippery road section in advance.
This is not all. Last month, Volvo Cars announced that from the year 2020, all Volvos will be speed-limited to 180 km/h – a move that has received mixed reviews so far with some even questioning if they have the right to do so.
They’ve also announced that they would install in-car cameras and other sensors to monitor and detect if the driver is intoxicated or distracted – allowing the car to intervene where necessary.
