PREVENTIVE SAFETY
COMPATIBILITY
CHILD SAFETY & PERSONAL SECURITY
THE VOLVO CARS SAFETY CENTRE
MILESTONES IN SAFETY
In a Volvo, safety is always a complete, integrated solution. It is the interplay between its various safety systems, not the amount of individual components, that determines how safe a car is. This holistic view is, and always has been, a cornerstone of Volvo's safety philosophy.
PREVENTIVE SAFETY
First of all, Volvo Car Corporation does everything that is in a car manufacturer's power to prevent its customers from being involved in accidents. One criterion for a Volvo is that the driver always has an unobstructed view of what is happening around him or her and that the car's chassis, engine, brakes and steering work together as a means of avoiding an accident
COMPATIBILITY
If, despite the preventive safety system, an accident should occur, a Volvo is designed to protect the people in it by protective safety. The car has a strong safety cage and systems such as airbags, inflatable curtains and safety belt tensioners help to make a
Volvo one of the world's safest cars. At the same time a Volvo should never cause unnecessary injury to other motorists, pedestrians and other unprotected road-users.
CHILD SAFETY & PERSONAL SECURITY
To enable children to travel as safely as adults, Volvo has developed a complete range of in-house booster cushions and rear-facing child-safety seats. Volvo Car Corporation was the first car manufacturer in the world to develop and crash test child-safety
utilities. Another part of the Volvo safety concept is personal security - an advanced personal and property protection system, which increases security on the way to and from the car.
Volvo Cars was the first car manufacturer to develop and crash-test child-safety components to optimise protection the most important members of the family.
The Volvo Cars child-safety programme covers children from infants up to the age of about ten (35 kg). The child-safety equipment is developed by Volvo Cars and crash-tested to offer maximum protection in its cars.
Small children are at least risk when facing the rear of the car. The basis of Volvo Cars’ child-safety system up to the age of three (3-18 kg) is a rear-facing, child-safety seat. The seat acts as an extra safety cage, while at the same time reducing the force of a collision. Specially designed panels offer protection in a side-impact accident.
For infants up to nine months of age, a baby insert can be added to the child-safety seat. There is also a separate infant-safety seat and child-safety seat with ISOFIX attachments. The ISOFIX system offers maximum safety for children and is very convenient for parents since it allows simple installation and removal of the seat.
Children aged three to about ten (15-35 kg) sit in safety on the rear seat on a booster cushion. The cushion is necessary for children of this age to enable them to use the safety belts. Without the cushion, the belt ends up at the wrong height and could even be lethal in an accident.
Many Volvo models can be equipped with an integrated booster cushion, which literally makes it child’s play to transform a regular seat at the back of the car to a safe place for children.
More information on the research into increased child safety in Volvo cars: www.volvocars.com
An entire new way of looking at design for safety is represented by the Volvo Safety Concept Car (see Concept Cars - SCC).
THE VOLVO CARS SAFETY CENTRE
This unique centre in Gothenburg opened in 2000. It is the most advanced facility of its kind in the world. Special technology helps the researchers to simulate real-life traffic conditions. The Volvo Cars crash simulator is used primarily to develop the interior safety systems of the car.
The crash laboratory features both a fixed track and a moving test track. Comprehensive full-scale test programmes ensure that all the on-board components interact. Frontal impacts, offset crashes, car-to-car, bus or truck as well as other objects in the traffic environment - everything is tested with cars of all sizes, at different angles and speeds.
The Volvo Cars Safety Centre represents a true breakthrough in safety research. The Ford Motor Company and the Volvo Group also use the facility.
MILESTONES IN SAFETY
1944 Safety cage
1944 Laminated windscreen
1959 Three-point safety belts, front
1960 Padded dashboard
1964 First rear-facing child-safety seat prototype tested in a Volvo
1966 Dual-circuit, triangle-split, brake system
1966 Crumple zones
1967 Safety belts, rear
1968 Head restraints, front
1969 Three-point inertia-reel safety belts, front
1972 Three-point safety belts, rear
1972 Rear-facing child-safety seat and childproof locks
1972 Volvo Experimental Safety Car (VESC)
1973 Impact-absorbing steering column
1974 Energy-absorbing bumpers
1974 Safe location of fuel tank
1978 Child-safety booster cushion
1982 'Anti-submarining' protection
1982 Wide-angle rear-view mirror
1984 ABS anti-locking brakes
1986 Eye-level brake lamp
1986 Three-point safety belt, rear seat middle
1987 Safety belt tensioners
1987 Airbag, driver
1990 Integrated child-safety booster cushion
1991 SIPS, Side Impact Protection System
1991 Automatic height adjustment for front safety belts
1993 Three-point inertia-reel safety belts on all seats
1994 SIPS, side-impact airbags
1997 ROPS, Roll-Over Protection System
1998 WHIPS, Whiplash Protection System
1998 IC, Inflatable Curtain
2000 Inauguration of Volvo Cars Safety Centre in Göteborg on 29 March
2000 ISOFIX attachment system for child-safety seats
2000 Dual-stage airbag
2000 Volvo On Call - safety system
2001 Volvo Safety Concept Car (SCC)
2002 RSC (Roll Stability Control)
2002 Extended ROPS
2002 Lower front cross-member - protection system for oncoming cars
2002 Development of virtual pregnant dummy
2003 IDIS (Intelligent Driver-information System)
2003 New, patented front-end structure reduces collision forces
2003 Inauguration of Bangkok Traffic Accident Research Centre (TARC)
2004 BLIS (Blind Spot Information System)
2004 DMIC - door-mounted inflatable side-impact curtain for convertibles
2004 ACC (Adaptive Cruise Control)
2004 Collision warning system with brake booster and automatic braking functions
2005 Volvo Co-Driver-support system
2005 Multi Lock, combined alco-lock and seat belt lock and speed limiter key (research project)
