Chinese owned Swedish automaker, Volvo, recently pioneered the world’s first pedestrian airbag and now they’ve gone one better and manufactured a new cyclist detection system as well. This marked yet another chapter in Volvo’s story to make their cars the safest in the world, when they revealed this unique system at the recent Geneva International Motor Show.
It is called ‘Cyclist Detection’ and this is the Swedes we’re talking about, so there is no faffing about. Rather obviously, the system detects cyclists and it can bring the car to a halt all on its own, if the sensors pick up imminent danger.
This is achieved through its integration into a car’s Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) system, which up until now had been calibrated to react only to large moving objects (cars and trucks) or pedestrians.
“The advanced sensor system scans the area ahead. If a cyclist heading in the same direction as the car suddenly swerves out in front of the car as it approaches from behind and a collision is imminent, there is an instant warning and full braking power is applied,” Volvo explained.
Volvo says that they will continue to add more and more features to their AEB-reliant safety systems and the ultimate goal is to make their cars avoid all possible crashes. The cyclist detection system will be added to the list of safety features from May 2013. Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection with full auto brake will be available for the Volvo V40, S60, V60, XC60, V70, XC70 and S80 models.
We just wonder about this system’s efficacy in the more congested cities of the world where cyclists are most prevalent, such as London, Beijing, etc? One thing is for sure, no future Volvos can be used as support vehicles for the world’s largest cycling races, like the Tour de France or our own Cape Argus Cycle Tour.
