Skip to main content

Volvo gives truck drivers all-around visibility

Volvo Trucks has developed new technology specifically to protect pedestrians and cyclists. The technology, developed in a research project called Non-Hit Car and Truck in cooperation with Volvo Cars. Volvo Trucks’ research shows that limited visibility is one of the main causes of heavy truck accidents with vulnerable road users in Europe. It claims its new technology enables a vehicle to do a 360 degree scan of everything that happens around it, receiving information via sensors, radars and cameras
October 8, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
5874 Volvo Trucks has developed new technology specifically to protect pedestrians and cyclists. The technology, developed in a research project called Non-Hit Car and Truck in cooperation with 7192 Volvo Cars.

Volvo Trucks’ research shows that limited visibility is one of the main causes of heavy truck accidents with vulnerable road users in Europe.

It claims its new technology enables a vehicle to do a 360 degree scan of everything that happens around it, receiving information via sensors, radars and cameras placed around the vehicle. This enables the vehicle to interpret its environment and feed information to the driver on how to avoid accidents. If the driver does not respond to the suggested actions, the steering or braking system can be activated autonomously.

“Today’s Volvo trucks are designed to eliminate any vehicle blind spots. But in situations with heavy traffic it is easy for a driver to miss something important such as an approaching cyclist on the vehicle’s passenger side. Now we can solve this issue and help the driver see and understand everything that is happening around the vehicle”, says Carl Johan Almqvist, Volvo Trucks’ Traffic and Product Safety director.

More testing is required, but Volvo hopes to make it a reality in five to ten years.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Should it be end of the road for right-turns on red?
    April 10, 2024
    Banning right-hand turns after stopping for a red light is gaining momentum in the US. But the debate continues about whether it will result in fewer incidents between vehicles and alternative mobility users. David Arminas reports
  • In-vehicle automation of safety compliance and other traffic violations
    January 24, 2012
    David Crawford explores new initiatives in enforcement. Achieving the EU’s new road safety target of reducing road traffic deaths by 50 per cent by 2020 depends on removing legal and institutional barriers to the deployment of new enforcement technologies, stresses Jan Malenstein. The senior ITS Adviser to Dutch National Police Agency the KLPD, and a European-level spokesperson on road and traffic safety, points to the importance of, among other requirements, an effective EUwide type approval process for fr
  • Preparing for connected vehicle technology challenge
    December 14, 2012
    A decision on mandating connected vehicle technology is expected in 2013, when associated political issues such as privacy are likely to come to the fore. Pete Goldin investigates industry’s preparations for the challenge. Once in a while new technology comes along with the power to revolutionise the way we live our lives. Connected vehicle technology could be such a game changer. If mandated in the United States, it could quickly become the status quo for transportation in the US, and such a disruptive cha
  • Acusensus cameras find more than 800 drivers using phones in five-week trial
    November 21, 2024
    There were also 2,300 incidents of not wearing a seat belt