An ELECTRIC event this week in Detroit
I’m at this year’s North America International Auto Show in (really cold) Detroit, where on Tuesday we will unveil a crash tested Volvo C30 DRIVe Electric, the world’s first showing of safety in an electric car. Our focus is to bring the same kind of safety engineering leadership we do with all our cars into [...]
LA Auto Show Was Electric
Been doing this show for longer than I care to remember, and I have never seen such excitement over a single breed of cars. Really, no one expects them to be our saving grace from global warming, but every bit helps. I have never driven one, until last week. Amazing to drive. Quite smooth, and [...]
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, [...]
Los Angeles Auto Show – Design Challenge
This concept design is stunning. I think the best part is removing safety systems, like heavy energy absorbing structures, instead shifting to preventative systems like we have today (lane departure, collision warning kind of stuff). Today’s alert technologies are just the beginning. In our classic Volvo car collection we have a 1927 PV4 – no [...]
Volvo Saved My Life Club Member
I think you’ve heard me drone on about “How Safe is an Old Volvo?” It’s one of those tough questions that comes up often, mostly from parents who want a car safe for their children to drive. I think one reason we have so many teenage driver accidents is our inadequate driver education system. Simply [...]
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
Every Little Bit Adds Up – 2011 S60 Regenerative Charging
I was going though technical specs and found a bit of technology that’s rather slick. Regenerative Charging (RC) is used in our S60s electrical system to reduce carbon output and increase fuel economy. RC is an intelligent control of the alternator charging function. By changing the alternator charge level parameters, when the driver uses the [...]
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 [...]
