For my friend Gibby – World-First Cyclist Detection
A very interesting fellow. Gibby has an energy level that 20-year-old folks would love to have. He loves being outdoors and is an avid cyclist. I mean avid. A short morning ride for him is 50-60 miles and he wants me to join him and his friends – yeah right. Anyway, a couple of weeks [...]
The Volvo XC60: Safety and Style
Designing and developing safety features are among the most exciting challenges for any carmaker, and at Volvo we take particular pride in the development of our safety innovations. In fact, in 2000 we created a unique crash-test safety laboratory that enables us to recreate many different accident types on the road in order to not [...]
Real 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 [...]
Real world test of City Safety
I know Bill, and he’s far from an “inept driver” as one commenter alludes to regarding this “2011 Volvo S60: A drivers car that makes better drivers” Boston.com article. Stuff happens, and in this case we saved all the hassles associated with a minor accident. Here is Clifford’s counterpoint to Bill’s piece. To an extent, [...]
Our first Open House since 1998 (I stand corrected since 2000)
Amazing how the years just blow by. Friends who work here now have sons and daughters working here, new cars have been launched, people change positions. So many things are different. But not our Open House. Around nine months ago, Doug Speck, our CEO, told us it’s time to do one again. Working with Volvo [...]
Best Review of Pedestrian Safety I’ve Seen
Very good description and demonstration by our Naughty Tour host. Good holiday weekend to all our friends in the US. The rest of you…well it’s just two days to Monday. dan
The ‘Naughty Volvo Tour’ Coming to a City Near You
An S60 hello to you all. Last year we took XC60 on tour. Our goal was to show something completely different in two ways: design and safety. No other Volvo ever looked as good, (okay, I think the first C70 Coupe was stunning, especially in Saffron color), but the XC60 was really the first showing [...]
Cryptic Message
Last week, after posting a short history of our seat belt, I received an e-mail from Sören, a man of very few words, always cryptic. His message was something like: “What, Clive and Mary.” And that was it. No clue what he was getting at. I sent an equally sparse reply: ‘?’. And of course, [...]
A journey that started with a ‘Click’
On July 14, 2010, our simple life saving device, the three-point seat belt, will forever be a part of American history. The Smithsonian National Museum of American History will officially accept Volvo’s three-point seat belt into their collection. On that day, with a press event for media, business, government and Smithsonian officials, a little bit [...]
Word Smithing 101
When Toyota announced their Star Safety System, we started to scratch our heads like, “Gosh, what makes that so special?” I put together lists of what Volvo had, when we had it, when it was fitted, to what models, if there were any markets we didn’t have something fitted … and it became overwhelming. So [...]
