Safety Technology from Volvo to Connect Cycle Helmets With Cars

In a ground-breaking collaboration, Volvo Cars, protective gravity sports gear manufacturer POC and Ericsson have developed an innovative safety technology connecting drivers and cyclists to help save lives and make the roads safer for all.

The technology consists of a connected car and helmet prototype that will establish 2-way communication offering proximity alerts to Volvo car drivers and cyclists and thereby avoid accidents. This is apparently the first time a car manufacturer has used connected safety technology in this way.

The need is dramatic. Each year, nearly 50,000 cyclists in the U.S. are injured or killed while doing something that should be a combination of joy and exercise.

Here’s how it works: Using a popular smartphone app for bicyclists, like Strava, the cyclist’s position can be shared through the Volvo Cars cloud to the car, and vice versa.

If an imminent collision is calculated, both road users will be warned – and enabled to take the necessary action to avoid a potential accident.

The Volvo driver will be alerted to a cyclist nearby through a head-up display alert – even if he happens to be in a blind spot, e.g. behind a bend or another vehicle or hardly visible during night time. The cyclist will be warned via a helmet-mounted alert light.

The innovative concept is a result of an all-Swedish partnership between Volvo Cars, POC, the leading manufacturer of protective gear for gravity sports athletes and cyclists and Ericsson, the world leader in communications technology and services.

Klas Bendrik, VP and Group CIO at Volvo Cars commented: “The partnership between Volvo Cars, POC and Ericsson is an important milestone in investigating the next steps towards Volvo Car’s vision to build cars that will not crash.”

“Today,” he continued, “our City Safety system, a standard in the all-new XC90, can detect, warn and auto-brake to avoid collisions with cyclists. By exploring cloud-based safety systems, we are now getting ever closer to eliminating the remaining blind spots between cars and cyclists and by that avoid collisions.”

Category: Featured, Safety