Let’s face it – when you think of vehicle safety, the first brand that comes to your mind is Volvo. The Swedish company has a heritage spanning 97 years, throughout which it has been at the forefront of crash protection and avoidance technologies.
Gothenburg’s innovations include safety features that we take for granted today, including the three-point safety belt – standard-fit to all Volvos since 1959 – as well as the curtain airbag and the Blind Spot Information System (BLIS). There’s a greater end goal to all these efforts: back in 2007, Volvo announced it was aiming to have zero injuries or deaths in any of its new cars by 2020, a pledge it has continued to uphold.
Key to Volvo’s relentless drive to improve safety are several initiatives like the Volvo Cars Safety Centre, an advanced crash laboratory opened back in 2000. This multifunctional facility allows the company’s engineers to recreate countless traffic situations and accidents, performing tests that go beyond regulatory requirements. On average, the lab crashes at least one new Volvo every day.
Another important factor is that Volvo does not restrict its latest and greatest safety innovations to its most expensive models, with many features trickling down to the rest of the lineup very quickly. For instance, Pilot Assist, Volvo’s semi-autonomous drive technology, is fitted as standard on all new Volvo models.
And in the future, your Volvo will even be able to tell if you are not operating it at your best. The dual-camera Driver Understanding System can detect if a driver is distracted, sleepy or even intoxicated. If needed, the car can warn the driver or even pull over to the side of the road in a safe manner. Volvo’s cabin monitoring technologies extend to other passengers with Occupant Sensing, which uses radar to detect if a child or pet has been left locked in the car and warns the driver, preventing hot car deaths.
But Volvo’s commitment to safety isn’t limited to its own cars – it knows that sharing its extensive and invaluable crash data, which it has built up since the 1970s, can help prevent injuries and deaths across the entire industry.
To that end, it has set up the Equal Vehicles for All (EVA) initiative, publishing its digital safety research library for anyone to download. And yes, this even includes other carmakers – just like when Volvo waived patent rights for its invention of the three-point safety belt back in 1959.
Today, all Volvo models benefit from a comprehensive list of safety features developed over decades of innovation. To experience them in a safe and comfortable environment, Volvo Car Malaysia is hosting the Volvo Safety Driving Experience on March 2 and 3, 2024, where you will be able to test out the latest features on Volvo’s battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles.
To sign up and learn more about the Volvo Safety Driving Experience, head on over to the official Volvo Car Malaysia website.
Seats are limited, and registrations will be approved on a first-come-first-served basis, so you’d better hurry!
