In a Volvo, safety is an integrated solution. It is the interplay between its design and various safety technologies that determines how safe a car is, not the amount of individual components and features. The aim is to design a car that is safe in a global and holistic perspective, with different size of occupants and in different traffic environments. This holistic view is, and always has been, a cornerstone of Volvo Cars' safety philosophy.
PREVENTIVE SAFETY
Preventive safety is a very efficient way to reduce the number of incidents in the traffic environment and is therefore an important area of Volvo Cars' research and development. Preventive safety includes the safety technologies that help the Volvo driver to avoid an incident in the first place. Examples of technologies are e.g. BLIS (Blind Spot Information System) and Collision Warning with Brake support. Real life safety is a key expression in Volvo Cars' safety philosophy and the technologies within the preventive safety area can create significant improvements in real-life-traffic.
PROTECTIVE SAFETY
If an accident should occur, a Volvo is designed to help protect the occupants. The design of the car and its safety technologies such as the safety belt and pretensioners in combination with airbags, inflatable curtains help to make a Volvo one of the world's safest cars. Another aim for Volvo's protective safety development is to help protect unprotected road users e.g. motorcyclists and pedestrians.
CHILD SAFETY
Volvo Car Corporation was, in the beginning of the 1970-ies, the first car manufacturer to develop its own child restraint. To enable children to travel safe Volvo has developed integrated booster cushions and rear-facing child restraints. Volvo Car Corporation was also the first car manufacturer to develop a pregnant crash simulation test dummy.
Volvo Car Corporation recommends children up to 3-4 years of age to travel rearward facing. This to enhance support to the spine and head and distribute the forces over a large part of the body in the event of a frontal impact.
For infants up to nine months of age, a baby insert can be added to the child seat. There is also a separate infant seat and child seat with ISOFIX attachments. The ISOFIX system is very convenient since it allows simple installation and removal of the seat.
For the older child, from four to about ten years old the booster cushion is recommended. The booster cushion allows the belt geometry of the adult seat belt to function in a better way with respect to the child occupant. The booster cushion raises the child, so the lap part of the belt can be positioned over the thighs and not over the abdomen. Other advantages of using the booster cushion are that the child, by sitting higher will have a more comfortable belt position over the shoulder and will also have a better view. To help increase the use of child restraint Volvo's new integrated child booster cushions can be set at a choice of two heights.
PERSONAL SECURITY
In an increasingly insecure world, it is important to have control over what happens in one's immediate vicinity, not least when you park your car. The Personal Car Communicator (PCC), is an advanced pocket-sized control centre which provides information which in some circumstances may be of interest to the car owner. A simple push of a button can within a few seconds tell the car owner if the car is locked or unlocked, if the alarm has been triggered or if the alarm has been triggered and someone is inside the car. This can be registered by a sensitive heartbeat sensor and an advanced calculation process.
THE VOLVO CARS SAFETY CENTRE
This unique centre in Gothenburg opened in 2000 and is the most advanced facility of its kind. The advanced laboratory helps the researchers to simulate real-life traffic conditions. The crash laboratory features both a fixed test track and a moving test track, from 0 to 90 degrees. Comprehensive full-scale tests are performed on car-to-car tests, frontal impacts, offset tests, bus or truck as well as other objects in the traffic environment at different speed with different size of the crash test dummies in different crash angles to verify occupant safety according to the real traffic environment.
The Volvo Cars Safety Centre represents a true breakthrough in safety research. The Ford Motor Company and the Volvo Group also use the facility.
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 (XC90)
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)
2005 Volvo Co-Driver-support system
2005 Multi Lock, combined alco-lock and seat belt lock and speed limiter key (research project)
2006 Personal Car Communicator (PCC)
2006 Collision Warning with brake support
2006 Active Bending Lights (ABL)
2007 Integrated two stage booster cushion
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