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Life - Cars

Friday, Jan. 30, 2009

Halt! Volvo’s new XC60 — with the technology to stop itself before impact — pulls into town

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A car that can brake itself to avoid a fender-bender during the morning commute might seem far into the future.

Except it goes on sale in March.

That's when City Safety, a low-speed collision-avoidance technology becomes available on the new 2010 Volvo XC60, a crossover utility.

The XC60 was at Modesto European on Tuesday as part of an interactive tour Volvo is holding at retailers across the country.

City Safety is just one of several new technologies designed to prevent car crashes and save lives. Auto sales are at a nearly two-decade low, but the pace of safety innovations continues unabated.

Whereas air bags, anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control were the standard for a safe car until very recently, automakers continue to raise the stakes.

Radar, lasers and cameras work with computers and sophisticated software to do tasks unheard of just a few years ago.

They tell you if you're falling asleep at the wheel, or if a car is in your blind spot. If you drift from your lane, they warn you, and in some instances nudge you back into your lane. And modern cruise control doesn't just keep a steady speed, but can help your car keep a steady distance with the car in front of you.

"There's no question the vehicle itself has played a role in the decline of fatalities," said Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). "But we're pretty much convinced there aren't that many safety benefits to be gained based on the crash-worthiness of passenger vehicles. The next frontier would be to help the driver avoid the crash in the first place."

All consumers should eventually benefit. Although most of the new systems first arrive in luxury vehicles, the most successful technologies usually show up in mainstream sedans and minivans within a few years. And prices fall as the rate of implementation increases.

There's evidence these new safety systems already are saving lives. NHTSA recently reported that the number of Americans killed in traffic accidents reached a 14-year low in 2008, and that the fatality rate per 100 million miles driven fell to 1.28, down from 1.37 in 2007.

The federal agency says electronic stability control and other "innovative technologies" have contributed to the decrease.

For many buyers, Volvo and safety are synonymous. Volvo long has marketed itself as the maker of the safest cars, and although the company still projects a Nordic reserve, it's unabashed about the new XC60, which will sell for under $40,000.

The automaker, which is owned by Ford Motor, characterized City Safety as a world first. It demonstrated the technology in Modesto and at a media introduction of the XC60 in Sausalito last week.

Here's how it works: A windshield-mounted laser sends infrared rays out as far as 18 feet ahead of the vehicle. A computer analyzes the rays reflected back from any object ahead of the car, and if it concludes a collision is imminent, it automatically brakes the vehicle.

The system is designed to prevent the low-speed collisions often seen during bumper-to-bumper conditions when a driver fails to notice that the car ahead has slowed or stopped, Broberg said.

Nearly 75 percent of all collisions take place at speeds below 19 miles per hour, data show.

In half of those accidents, a driver never hits his or her brake pedal, Volvo research shows. City Safety can intervene and prevent a collision when a vehicle is traveling at 9 mph or less. At speeds between 10 and 19 mph, the impact of a collision will be mitigated.

The system requires no driver input. But once it has been engaged, a dashboard message tells the driver what has happened.

Broberg said Volvo's engineers purposely made the braking action very late and quite harsh. Why? Volvo worried that if the system responded gently, drivers would pay attention even less and just let the car stop itself.

"It brakes well outside your comfort zone," he said.

While the system might prevent collisions with pedestrians, bicyclists and animals, it's designed to use the reflective surfaces on the back of a car, such as a license plate and its lights.

Getting the car to stop isn't complicated. "That's the easy part," Broberg said. "To make sure it doesn't brake when it's not supposed to brake, that's the tricky part." Volvo forecasts that City Safety might reduce the number of low-speed collisions by half. Already, he said, insurance companies in some European countries have said drivers of cars with the technology will see a reduction in insurance premiums.