Skip to main content

Volvo’s new cars to get pedestrian and cyclist detection

By tracking moving objects, a new system from Volvo could help prevent accidents. The system uses a camera embedded in a car’s rear view mirror, combined with a radar instrument in the grill to scan the road ahead. If it sees an object, an onboard computer will determine whether it is a cyclist or a pedestrian, and prepare to apply the brakes if someone swerves out into traffic or darts across road. Many cars already come with safety systems that will brake if a collision with another vehicle or a pedestria
March 28, 2013 Read time: 2 mins
By tracking moving objects, a new system from 609 Volvo could help prevent accidents.

The system uses a camera embedded in a car’s rear view mirror, combined with a radar instrument in the grill to scan the road ahead. If it sees an object, an onboard computer will determine whether it is a cyclist or a pedestrian, and prepare to apply the brakes if someone swerves out into traffic or darts across road. Many cars already come with safety systems that will brake if a collision with another vehicle or a pedestrian seems imminent. By tracking nearby moving objects, the Volvo system could prevent further accidents.

The system is said to enhance a driver’s awareness of his or her surroundings. If a driver doesn’t see a cyclist, a warning flashed on the windscreen will serve as a reminder to drive more cautiously. Augmenting drivers’ ability to monitor the road is increasingly common and it can be preferable to a system that tries to take over completely.

Volvo will demonstrate the system at this year’s New York Auto Show and says it will appear in virtually all its models from mid-2013.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Driver assistance with stereo vision sensing system
    May 14, 2013
    A new stereo vision sensing (SVS) system developed by automotive safety systems supplier Autoliv will, says the company, help vehicle manufacturers meet the new test criteria that EuroNCAP recently announced to promote autonomous emergency braking, intelligent speed assist, lane departure assists and pedestrian protection. The system has a field of view of 50 degrees and can recognise objects within 120 metres. To provide the best view, the stereo vision cameras are mounted high on the front windshield behi
  • Europe’s road safety gains have stagnated EU
    March 17, 2017
    Europe will fail to meet its road death targets as enforcement budgets are slashed and drivers face an epidemic of distractions. The European Union will not achieve its aim of halving the number of people killed on its roads each year by 2020, delegates to Tispol’s (the organisation of European traffic police) annual conference in Manchester were told. “The target will be missed because there was only a 17% decrease in road fatalities across Europe between 2010 and 2015 when [the rate of reduction] should h
  • US DOTs introduce measures to stop wrong-way driving
    March 28, 2018
    Wrong-way driving (WWD) is a remarkably innocuous term for incidents that all too often cause some of the worst accidents that emergency services have to deal with. Several US states are now taking steps to minimise the problem, as Alan Dron finds out. You’re driving down a highway at night when you see approaching headlights. You initially assume they are merely those of an oncoming car on the opposite carriageway. It’s only when they are within 200 yards or so that you realise that the other driver is in
  • Continental developing road departure protection systems
    June 25, 2015
    International automotive supplier Continental is working on new road departure protection systems that aim to eliminate unintended road departures, which currently are not completely covered by today’s lateral guidance advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), preventing fatal accidents from occurring on highways and rural roads. According to the US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, approximately 55 per cent of traffic fatalities in the US involve a vehicle crossing the roadwa