Volvo's research on accident avoidance and collision prevention has never stopped. Since the 1960s, Volvo has been collecting data in large quantities and evaluating them, thus guaranteeing a very successful development loop. The goal is to provide maximum safety for all road users.
For Volvo, safety is not just a top priority, and even when many people don't know what DNA is, safety is already rooted in Volvo's DNA. Keeping people safe is a fundamental principle that Volvo founders Assar Gabrielsson and Gustav Larson have always adhered to. This is a principle that still applies today. Of course, the future is also the same, because the quest for maximum security is never-ending. It is a closed-loop process of R&D and innovation. Make improvements, see how well they work, and improve again. Since the 1820s, Volvo has been guided by the same goal: freedom of movement and maximum safety for everyone.
Back in 2007, there was a desire that no one would be seriously injured or killed while driving a Volvo car. Building a "zero-casualty" car is a vision for Volvo. It is also recognized that such a thing can only be achieved by combining people with cars and infrastructure.
The most important "fuel" for security is data. Since 1970, Volvo has been collecting this information and making it available to others, "safety work can only be effective if everyone is involved." Real data can only be targeted," says Lotta Jakobsen, Senior Technical Director for Traffic Accident Injury Prevention at volvo Car Safety Centre. She is a professor who studies biomechanics and is an authority on traffic accident research, injury research, and vehicle structural improvement. She has been working on security at Volvo since the 1990s. She knows the journey to safety never ends.
We came to the Volvo Traffic Accident Investigation Centre in Gothenburg, Sweden. For more than 50 years, the research center has been monitoring traffic accidents and screening them according to their severity. The real data obtained helps determine which injuries occur in what way, which can be reduced through constructive improvements, and which are not. How is this done? They collect data on cars, collisions and injuries and calculate the number of collisions in the lab. In addition, the traffic accident investigation team will also study at the accident site. The researchers then took the vehicle wreckage to their own workshops so that they could delve deeper and use the relevant data for further simulation experiments.
Security pioneer Nils Boleyn
The first celebrity we would like to mention in terms of safety was Nils Bohlin, the inventor of the three-point seat belt, who came up with the idea of inventing the seat belt after investigating the cause of the accident. Invented in 1959, seat belts have been standard in Volvo vehicles since 1963 and have been used in rear seats since 1967. In 1967, Boleyn showed the results of a survey of 28,000 traffic accidents involving Volvo Cars, and the number of passengers with seat belts was halved compared to those who did not. But Lotta Jacobson also knew: "After that, it took a long time for seat belts to be truly accepted. Even today, people have similar problems with their acceptance of new technologies. "Volvo has spared no effort to develop this technology.
For example, volvo Car Safety Centre conducts crash tests. There are adjustable tracks in the lab to simulate different impact angles. The glass floor is used to observe the deformation process of the bottom of the car body. In addition, the evaluation can also be used to improve the virtual model.
There is a successful early data analysis case: child safety elevated cushions. It was originally designed for people of short stature, but was later used to keep children safe. Because Volvo engineers are aware that by looking at the relevant accident data, such people are more likely to be injured when using seat belts, and they may be strangled by seat belts and other parts of the neck, or fly out of the gap in the seat belt and be fatally injured.
Another example: a side impact protection system. The system, which began in 1991, reduced accident injuries by 54 percent by improving the body structure in key areas. This was followed by side airbags in 1994 that reduced injuries by 61 percent. In 1998/2005, safety curtains were popularized, reducing injuries by 72%. The City Safety system was completed in 2015, enabling it to proactively prevent such accidents or significantly reduce their severity. The first measure protected the neck and pelvis of the occupants of the car and reduced head injuries, as evidenced by data analysis. All these measures are included in the European New Car Safety Evaluation Association (E-NCAP) evaluation project.
Damage caused by moose collisions
Low-cost, high-impact improvements also include cushioning in the seats. In the event of an accident, the vehicle may suddenly drive away from the road and fall into a ravine on the side of the road, at which point the seat belt will automatically tighten, firmly fixing the occupants in the car to the seat, and by actively adjusting their sitting posture, the damage to the spine is reduced, and the cushioning device located on the rear side under the seat can absorb 30% of the vertical impact force.
Another important example of using real-world data is the damage caused when colliding with a moose. The moose is the largest and tallest deer in the world, with long legs that can cause serious damage to the body and A-pillar when collided. Moreover, in some cases, the animal's body can even rush into the interior of the vehicle, causing injury to the occupants of the vehicle. Traditionally, dummies represent the occupants in the car in crash tests, with dummies of varying sizes and weights to choose from, from babies to petite women to hunky men. In this regard, Volvo is also constantly improving, simulating different categories of people and conducting precise tests to provide the best protection for a variety of different situations, such as pregnant women.
Among them, the "BioRID simulation dummy", which can represent about 50% of the male body, has no ribs, but has a skeleton that accurately simulates humans, which is equipped with a sophisticated measuring device to measure the acceleration in the event of a rear-end accident. Whipping tests simulate injuries to the human cervical spine in the event of a collision. The new dummies used for side impact testing are very expensive. In principle, dummies are "calibrated" after each experiment in order to provide reproducible data at any time. While more than 90 percent of current research is conducted through virtual simulations, and virtual models perform better at simulating muscles, dummies are essential, as engineers emphasize, especially in extreme testing.
Volvo's findings suggest that lane keeping assist and speed assist with a speed limit function can avoid collisions. The slower the speed, the less likely it is that a collision will occur. This is very logical. In addition, the driver's attention is also important. With the same fewer interventions, people who are more concerned about road conditions will react faster. According to Malin Ekholm, head of the Volvo Safety Center, Volvo has a clear goal of producing the world's safest cars. She sees her aspirations being realized, such as a partnership with the U.S. Road Safety Administration NHTSA. Volvo took driving safety as a benchmark and received the highest safety rating from the 2021 IHTS (Highway Safety Insurance Association) in the United States.
Still, Ekheim concludes that third-party testing is also very important. We naturally see ams' reviews as an incentive.