Las Vegas, NV. January 5th, 2015. In a ground-breaking collaboration, Volvo Cars, protective gravity sports gear manufacturer POC and Ericsson will unveil an innovative safety technology connecting drivers and cyclists for the first time ever at the 2015 International Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas held January 6-9.
The technology consists of a connected car and helmet prototype that will establish 2-way communication offering proximity alerts to Volvo drivers and cyclists to ensure accident avoidance. Volvo is the first car manufacturer to help address this problem by using Connected Safety technology.
A global growth in cycling has resulted in an increase in serious cycling accidents, an issue that Volvo Cars and POC believes is unacceptable and requires innovative technology to help address the problem. Volvo Cars’ City Safety system - standard on the all-new XC90 - is a technology that can detect, warn and auto-brake to avoid collisions with cyclists; it is the industry’s first step to seriously address cyclist safety. This commitment has paved the way for the innovative helmet technology concept.
“The partnership between Volvo Cars, POC and Ericsson is an important milestone in investigating the next steps towards Volvo Cars’ vision to build cars that will not crash.” said Klas Bendrik, VP and Group CIO at Volvo Cars. “But now, by exploring cloud-based safety systems, we are getting ever closer to eliminating the remaining blind spots between cars and cyclists and by that avoid collisions.”
Using a popular smartphone application for bicyclists, like Strava, the cyclist’s position can be shared through the Volvo cloud to the car, and vice versa. If an imminent collision is calculated, both road users will be warned – and enabled to take the necessary action to avoid a potential accident. The Volvo driver will be alerted to a cyclist nearby through a head-up display alert, no matter the location of the cyclist around the vehicle or the time of day. The cyclist will be warned via a helmet-mounted alert light.
“Our mission is to do the best we can to possibly save lives and to reduce the consequences of accidents for gravity sports athletes and cyclists.” said Stefan Ytterborn, Founder & CEO of POC. “The partnership with Volvo Cars aligns very well with our mission and we are excited to see how we can contribute to cyclist safety and increase interaction between cars and cyclists alike.”
“There is perhaps no greater promise that the Networked Society holds than its ability to create connections that save lives.” said Per Borgklint, SVP and Head of Business Unit Support Solutions at Ericsson. “Our latest work with Volvo Cars to explore protecting the millions of cyclists on the road is just the latest example of innovation that can change the world. We are proud to support this critical initiative in conjunction with POC and remain committed to the pursuit of connectivity-driven advancements that create limitless new possibilities.”
The innovative, cloud-based safety concept has exciting development opportunities and the technologies ultimate goal is to help prevent future accidents and save the lives of unprotected road users.
About Volvo Cars of Canada
Volvo Cars of Canada Corporation is part of the Volvo Car Group of Gothenburg, Sweden. The company provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to the 38 Volvo automobile retailers across the country. The S60, S80 and XC60 are among only 22 vehicles that have been awarded the prestigious new Top Safety Pick+ by IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety). Volvo Cars is committed to Vision 2020, our goal that no one shall be killed or seriously injured in a Volvo by the year 2020.
About Volvo Car Group
Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 427,000 in 2013 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.
As of December 2013, Volvo Cars had over 23,000 employees worldwide. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium) and Chengdu (China) while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China).
