When is a Volvo a Bobo?
Bobos are for four-year-olds!
I guess at that age you are just unable to pronounce ‘V.’ My kids did the same thing. Hearing them say Bobo was always funny, but I believe that even at a young age a car can be something special to little folks.
The following came in from Alex in our Social Media group: “Essentially this girl is truly a Volvo fanatic at the young age of 4. Her parents drive an S60 and XC90 and she just has this unbelievable love for the brand. They have been in two accidents and were safe in both. She loves visiting Volvo dealerships, near her house or on vacation (Cherry Hill is their local). Her mom started posting to YouTube just for fun. We picked them up and reached out to them and they came and spent the day with us, toured the facility and had lunch. I am sure you can put a better spin on it then I can.”
No Alex, it doesn’t need any spinning. She was so cute it’s hard to put into words any better than what you have written, thanks.
Posted in safety, Volvo Saved My Life | 1 Comment »Early holiday present to employees for a job well done
As mentioned in some prior blog posts, all too often employees might think this is just another job, a 9-5 gig (yeah right, most work much more than that, meaning they take pride in what they do and when having fun, time flies). But when we get customer letters about how they believe our car saved their life, well it truly is rewarding.
We often take acknowledgement from organizations like the Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) not for granted, but as only one aspect of how safety is measured and quantified. For us, it is an affirmation that our work towards Vision 2020 (no deaths or serious injuries in a Volvo by year 2020) is moving forward. We often get asked “what if you don’t meet that goal?” Even if we don’t, our cars will be safer and less lives will be lost, and that is the goal after all. It’s interesting that in all the years of focusing on safety, I cannot remember a corporate goal. We remember when Thomas Broberg, Senior Safety Engineer at VCC, made the Vision 2020 statement. It was a shock coupled with pride that we would pen such a lofty goal.
So congratulations to all who work here for a job well done.
dan
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Five Volvo models get IIHS Top Safety Pick award
Volvo Car Corporation’s leadership in car safety is confirmed in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s (IIHS) 2012 Top Safety Pick award.
The U.S. award recognizes vehicles that do the best job of protecting people in front, side, rollover, and rear crashes – and no less than five Volvo models – the C30, S60, S80, XC60 and XC90 – earned a Top Safety Pick. Volvo is the only European luxury brand with five awarded models in the new IIHS report.
“The risk of being involved in an accident or being injured in one of our latest car models has been reduced with more than two thirds compared with a Volvo from the 1970s. Now, we keep on moving towards our safety vision that nobody should die or suffer serious injuries in a new Volvo car by the year 2020″, says Thomas Broberg, Senior Safety Advisor at Volvo Car Corporation.
IIHS Top Safety Pick is based on four accident scenario results*:
- Frontal crashworthiness evaluations are based on results of 40 mph (64 km/h) frontal offset crash tests.
- Side evaluations are based on performance in a crash test in which the side of a vehicle is struck by a barrier moving at 31 mph (50 km/h). The barrier represents the front end of a pickup or SUV.
- To earn a good rating for rollover protection, the car roof must withstand a force of four times the vehicle’s weight before reaching five inches of crush.
- Rear crash protection is rated using a dummy that measures forces on the neck. This test simulates a collision in which a stationary vehicle is struck in the rear at 20 mph (32 km/h).
Outstanding U.S. NCAP rating
Volvo Car Corporation’s dedication to car safety has been recognized in several recent studies.
The XC60 is also the only SUV crossover with an IIHS Top Safety Pick and an overall 5 star U.S. NCAP rating. In the 2010 test, the XC60 received 5 stars in all individual crash tests, including 5 stars for the driver and 5 stars for the passenger in the frontal collision as well as 5 stars in both side tests.
Auto brake results in fewer accidents
Earlier this year, the benefits of the groundbreaking City Safety technology – featuring automatic braking in low speed situations – were documented in another IIHS report stating a reduction of the collision frequency with up to 22 percent. The IIHS study of insurance claims involving a Volvo XC60 shows that City Safety reduces the costs for personal injury claims with 51 percent – while vehicle repair costs were lowered by more than 20 percent.
A similar study by the Swedish insurance company Volvia shows that Volvo cars equipped with automatic braking are involved in 22 percent fewer rear end accidents than cars without auto brake.
* Source: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
A Conversation with Andy Pilgrim
Driving is a special privilege. Andy Pilgrim had lots to say on the topic of driving and these five words are just one way to summarize the forty minute conversation we had with him yesterday. While these five words convey a message that should be obvious, many people simply view driving as a rite of passage one undertakes as a teenager instead of the huge responsibility it actually is. Many of us live in areas where getting around without a car is unthinkable, unimaginable, maybe even impossible, and driving has become a monotonous part of our day. Drive to work. Drive home. Repeat.
No matter how routine, we need to make a habit and a priority of remaining present and focused the immediate task at hand – driving. It’s more than a means to an end, more than a necessity. When your life and the lives of others are in your hands it is, indeed, a special privilege.
Andy also talked about the role parents, education and legislation play in shaping driving behavior, how he learned to drive, distracted driving, and what can be found on “The Driving Zone 2” DVD. Download the recording to see which of Andy’s messages resonate with you.
Posted in Andy Pilgrim, National Teen Driver Safety Week, safety, texting, Volvo Car Corporation | Comments OffNational Teen Driver Safety Week
In recognition of National Teen Driver Safety Week (Oct. 16-22, 2011), Volvo will be speaking with Andy Pilgrim, a professional race car driver and founder of Andy Pilgrim Foundation, and creator of a DVD titled “The Driving Zone 2.” Andy’s mission is to educate new drivers and raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving, so his DVD addresses the pitfalls of texting, emailing and talking on the phone while driving. It also highlights many useful tools used by professional and experienced drivers to enable them to stay collision-free.
Andy’s been speaking to students, parents and educators around the country for nearly 20 years after witnessing a fatal collision involving a new driver. If you have questions you’d like him to address during our Q&A session, please submit them to wmcaden@volvocars.com by 5 p.m. PST on October 18. A recording of the Q&A session will be available for download on Thurs., Oct. 20.
Posted in Andy Pilgrim, National Teen Driver Safety Week, safety, Volvo Car Corporation | 1 Comment »A running debate about child safety seats
“When it comes to child safety, parents are racing to provide the best for their precious cargo. Many moms and dads will be interested to know that there has been a debate going on for about 20 years regarding differences between the United States and many European countries when it comes to child-safety seats.”
Above is the opening paragraph from an interesting article by Sherrice Gilsbach, Associate On-Line Editor at ShopAutoWeek.com, about the difference between infant/child car seats sold here and in Europe. Many years back, Volvo went to the European Safety Organization about setting a common standard for child seat anchorages. The story I heard was that we were so hot to find a common solution, they told Volvo to chair that issue. We did, and after 10 years of work the Lower Anchors and Tethers for CHildren – LATCH – became law.
One would think that would be enough to make U.S. cars as safe as they are in Europe, but that’s not the case. In Europe, we are allowed to design child seats to fit our cars. And we can use a support arm to help keep the seat stay in position when rear facing.
As Sherrice learned, we and other manufactures have not taken a quiet approach to finding a safe solution. I know over the years we have petitioned NHTSA to change their testing methodology and to allow us to bring our own seats to the U.S., but that never worked. They are concerned that someone might incorrectly install the Volvo car seat in another car. NHTSA’s idea is to make a common seat that fits all cars. In Volvo’s opinion, that is not a safe solution.
Here’s the entire article:
http://www.shopautoweek.com/articles/2011/09/Child-safety-US-vs-European-car-seats.html
dan
Posted in child safety seats, safety | 1 Comment »A bunch of very lucky kids
Through the years of owning a car, any car, there is always a constant reminder of why you bought a car. Some people believe the design mirrors their lifestyle, some people like performance – although these days most do ¼ mile times really means stuck on LA’s 405 or our I95 – and some people like a car’s color and awesome sound system. But how do you feel about Safety? After all, Safety isn’t Sexy. Safety is something intangible that is hard to show every morning when you fire up your Volvo and head to work.
Peter Horbury, Chief of Design, Volvo Car Corporation – Sweden, has always talked about how to show safety – that it’s a hidden asset waiting for a terrible mistake to happen. With our new S60 there is a kind of “Good morning, I’m about Safety” when you first start the car and the LED lights blink on/off. So yes, there are ways to show what we do and I suspect there will be more ideas shown on future cars, thanks to Peter.
The link below shows one terrible accident, an accident no government or private agency can create testing methodology for. This was an accident like the kind we accumulate at our Gothenburg HQ. Since 1972, we have inputted over 40,000 real world accidents, all within about one hour’s drive of our HQ. In that mass of data we look at how our cars perform and this gives us opportunities to look for future safety ideas. As we get better computing systems, different materials and sensors, and just about anything relating to safety, we keep pushing to make our cars safer.
These kids are very lucky. On their worst day I think a Viking God was looking over them: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20110917/NEWS07/709179999
dan
Posted in collision, safety | 4 Comments »Will Volvo stop doing crash tests in 10 years?
We got this interesting question on Twitter a few days ago, and it deserves some Volvo discussion.
The question doesn’t have a simple answer. In 10 years, when most new cars will have some level of pre-crash technology – much like most cars today have some level of ABS – we will still need to run verification crash testing. Crash testing is used to not only validate each new car model’s body structure (that it meets what we had intended to achieve), but for market by market compliance with governmental standards. I suspect that governments will be slower to change their standards than a car manufacturer’s ability to make safer vehicles that use pre-crash technologies.
Thinking along those same lines is Thomas Broberg, our lead safety engineer at VCC in Sweden, who was recently asked if weight is taken out of cars to get better fuel economy, would that negatively impact vehicle structural safety? Darn simple question…sort of. Thomas said, “…my point being that I do not see any contradiction in being fuel efficient and safe, some challenges yes but we will take them one by one as we move towards our Vision 2020 goal. Also, that part of our increased fuel efficiency is electrification and that actually means cars will be heavier, (dan: our C30 EV is about 200 pounds heavier than non-EV C30) which is beneficial in some situations and challenging in others.”
Thomas’ approach is that we have to think holistically about fuel economy. Just removing weight isn’t the solution, at least for Volvo. How do we meet Vision 2020 (zero deaths or serious injuries in a Volvo by year 2020) and still improve fuel economy? According to many industry experts, the internal combustion engine is not dead. There are ways to combine small displacement, low carbon output engines with PHEV technology to fulfill our need for long distance driving and short city commutes.
dan
Posted in C30, C30 Electric, crash test, Electrification, Environment, fuel efficiency, future, safety, Vision 2020 | Comments Off“I got into an accident”
How many times have you heard that? Rarely do you hear, “I avoided an accident.” Why? Well for me, I’d rather not admit I was about to hit someone, it kind of reflects on my inattentiveness or inability to control a driving situation, and we all know I’m a perfect driver (not really). The point is, what happens before an accident can make the situation just an embarrassing moment or a full-blown accident.
Thomas Broberg, our lead safety guy at Volvo in Sweden, has been talking about pre-accident situations for years. This research area is just emerging, much in the way energy absorbing structures started some years ago. For us, the first real energy absorbing technology was in our 140 series in 1967. There are two ways to look at accidents: 1 – Laboratory crash testing after a crash (government, private party testing), and 2 – Real world accidents. We pride ourselves in taking real world accident data research and building systems around our data. But what happens leading up to an accident and how does Volvo view that sequence? Thomas just sent the following graphic over and I wanted to share it with you. This puts into perspective how we have been moving from post-crash to pre-crash technology – to help me be a better driver. (click on image to enlarge)
dan
Posted in crash test, safety, XC60 | Comments OffReal world accident research – Real world results
Many of you know this bit of Volvo history but please bear with me on this refresh. Since 1972, Volvo in Sweden has investigated real world accidents that happen within about an hour’s drive of our Torslanda HQ. A team of researchers head to a site, take measurements, interview people and sometimes take the car into our crash center for further analysis. Right now, we have over 40,000 accidents in our real world accidents database.
What we have done and continue to do, is look for ways to help improve occupant protection. These days, it’s more about avoidance than protection. But for our database going forward there is no way to interview someone who didn’t have an accident because City Safety did it’s job. If an XC60 driver doesn’t stop and City Safety takes over, how can we measure that occurrence? We can’t, but the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) can and just did. Below is our press release about how City Safety is saving money and lives. You can read their release at: http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr071911.html
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2011-07-18-self-braking-cars_n.htm
Good video news report at http://www.autonews.com/article/20110719/VIDEO/307199926/1439
Good Morning America. Self-Braking Cars Get Green Light http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/braking-cars-green-light-14104791?tab=9482930§ion=1206852&playlist=14103762
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/volvo-crash-prevention-system-receives-high-marks-from-insurance-institute/
City Safety is another stepping stone to reaching Vision 2020 goal: No deaths or serious injuries in a Volvo by year 2020.
dan
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Insurance Claim Analysis: Volvo City Safety System Prevents Collisions
Highway Loss Data Institute Finds Volvo XC60 Gets Into Fewer Crashes
ROCKLEIGH, N.J. (July 19, 2011) – A newly published analysis from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) indicates that Volvo XC60s get into fewer low-speed crashes than comparable vehicles thanks to Volvo’s City Safety technology, a standard feature on all XC60s.
HLDI examined claim frequency under property damage liability, bodily injury liability and collisions. Their data concluded frequency rates for the XC60 were lower than all other midsize luxury SUVs, specifically:
- Claims under property damage liability coverage were filed 27 percent less often for the XC60 than other midsize luxury SUVs.
- Claim frequencies for injuries for the XC60 were filed about half as often compared to other midsize luxury SUVs.
- Collision claim frequencies for the XC60 were 22 percent lower than all other midsize luxury SUVs.
“This is our first real-world look at an advanced crash avoidance technology, and the findings are encouraging,” said Adrian Lund, president of HLDI and IIHS. “City Safety is helping XC60 drivers avoid the kinds of front-to-rear low speed crashes that frequently happen on congested roads.”
IIHS last year estimated that current crash avoidance features have the potential to prevent or mitigate as many as 1.9 million crashes each year, and current users have stated the systems help them to be safer drivers.
“It is great to see validation from HLDI and IIHS of the safety systems that we at Volvo are continually developing,” said Thomas Broberg, Volvo Car Corp.’s senior safety expert. ”This is another step towards achieving our Vision 2020 of eliminating serious injuries and fatalities by the year 2020, and an even larger step towards a crash-free future.”
HLDI also looked at how the crash reductions for the XC60 affected overall insurance costs:
- Overall payouts under property damage liability for XC60s were 20 percent lower than losses for all other midsize luxury SUVs.
- Estimated overall collision losses for the XC60 were 31 percent lower than all other midsize luxury SUVs.
“The lower claim frequencies found by HLDI prove that City Safety is preventing crashes and thus reducing insurance costs,” said John Maloney, VCNA’s vice president of marketing and product planning. ”There’s an opportunity here for insurance companies to begin offering a discount on vehicles equipped with City Safety or similar crash-avoidance technologies.”
HLDI analysts compared insurance claims data for the 2010 model XC60 with two control groups: other 2009-10 midsize luxury SUVs and other 2009-10 Volvo models. The analysis controlled for a variety of geographic and demographic factors that can affect claims. Geographic factors include garaging state and vehicle density (the number of registered vehicles per square mile). Demographic factors take into account such things as the primary driver’s age, gender and marital status. Other factors include calendar year plus the policy deductible.
HLDI defines the three types of auto insurance coverage as follows: property damage liability pays for damage an at-fault vehicle does to another’s property as the result of a crash. Bodily injury liability generally pays for injuries to people involved in the crash other than the insured at-fault driver. Collision pays for damage to the insured vehicle.
City Safety keeps a watch on vehicles in front with the help of a laser sensor built into the windscreen at the height of the rearview mirror. Between 2-19 mph, the car automatically brakes if the driver does not respond in time when the car in front slows down or stops – or if the driver is driving too fast towards a stationary object. If the relative speed difference between the two vehicles is less than 9 mph, the collision can be entirely avoided. If the speed difference is between 9-19 mph, the speed at impact is reduced by about one half, thereby mitigating the collision. City Safety also is also standard on the 2011 and 2012 S60, 2012 S80 and 2012 XC70.
In addition to City Safety, the XC60 is available with Pedestrian Detection with Full Auto Brake as part of its optional Technology Package. Pedestrian Detection with Full Auto Brake uses forward-looking radar and digital camera identification that scans an object and matches its shape against an image database of about 10,000 forms. The system can track up to 64 pedestrians and their paths – all within 50 milliseconds.
If a pedestrian walks into the car’s path and an impact is imminent, a warning light and tone warn the driver. If the driver does not react, the car will apply up to 100 percent available braking force, thereby avoiding a collision if the car is traveling 19 mph or less. At 20 mph and higher, the available breaking force will significantly mitigate the collision.
In the effort to continually be the industry leader in safety, Volvo is working on plans for the next generation of active safety detection which features animal detection. The system, much like today’s pedestrian detection, will feature a radar sensor and infrared camera – and it will function in the dark when the likelihood of hitting an animal increases. The system must be complex in order to recognize a variety of animals in differing sizes – from dogs to moose. According to IIHS, from 1993-2007, 2,499 people died in collisions involving wild animals and the number of collisions continues to increase.
Additional Information
IIHS: http://www.iihs.org/
XC60 City Safety: https://www.media.volvocars.com/us/enhanced/en-us/Media/Preview.aspx?mediaid=18521
XC60 Safety Systems: https://www.media.volvocars.com/us/enhanced/en-us/Media/Preview.aspx?mediaid=18524
Vision 2020: https://www.media.volvocars.com/us/enhanced/en-us/Media/Preview.aspx?mediaid=30670
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About Volvo
Volvo Cars of North America, LLC, (www.volvocars.com/us) is a subsidiary of Volvo Car Corporation of Gothenburg, Sweden. VCNA provides marketing, sales, parts, service, technology and training support to Volvo automobile retailers in the United States, and oversees Volvo operations in Canada. For more information please refer to the VCNA media website at: http://www.volvocars-pr.com, and follow Volvo’s blog at: www.volvoblog.us.
Contact:
Dan Johnston or Laura DiStefano
Volvo Cars of North America
800-977-0888
Posted in City Safety, pedestrian safety, safety, Sweden, XC60 | 5 Comments »We’ve been waiting since March
Sorry for not posting more lately, I’ve just been buried with the XC Adventure out west, then a trip to Road America for MAMA (Midwest Automotive Media Association) for a ride event, and support work with “Drive Towards Zero” in Washington DC later this week.
“Drive Towards Zero” is Volvo’s vision of a future entirely free of harmful emissions and no injuries in a new Volvo by 2020. Volvo Car Corporation in Sweden, has planned an awesome agenda for media and industry, along with key governmental people to present our vision for future safety and alternative powered vehicles. When the event is finished, we’ll share with you what was presented. For me, there is no question that Volvo will continue to lead in safety, along with a good foot hold on future power systems.
BUT, my waiting since March is all about me…well Adrienne, Chelsea (dog) and I. We took delivery of an S60 T5 yesterday. Ok…so big deal, well, yeah it was.
All my years here, I’ve always bought my company car, bought someone elses car, used press cars, had company cars – basically used whatever I wanted whenever I needed one – not this time. In all these years, only two cars have been screamed ‘lust’. First, a C70 in Saffron and now, a S60 in Vibrant Copper. I missed getting that Saffron C70, well, I actually sold it to my son-in-law who met a dairy cow one dark night on a very small, dark country road. The cow and car didn’t fair well, but my son-in-law did fine. Anyway, I was not going to miss this S60.
We bought one with the Technology Package, Dual Exhaust, and Nord Wheels (coming soon). Our local dealer, no surprise, didn’t have one in stock nor would he stock Vibrant Copper – “Only a few people would want that color,” nice way to say “there are very few wackos with such poor taste as to really want to drive anything in that color.” We were not offended, hence the waiting until March. We were truly impressed at how our sales guy handled our introduction to S60. Good job Steve. He took a good 40 mins to go over Sensus (our information display technology) and every detail of this car. He knew I worked at Volvo, so I knew this car, but he went though the walk-a-round presentation anyway.
So now our ’98 XC70 (210,000 miles)/Sven, gets a hot Swedish companion/Katrina to share our garage.
dan
