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With the launch of these features across Europe, Volvo Cars also reiterates its invitation to the car industry to join it in sharing anonymised data related to traffic safety across car brands.

Volvo Cars is making its groundbreaking, industry-first connected safety technology available across Europe as another step in its ambitions to improve traffic safety.

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In 2017, Volvo Cars employed on average approximately 38,000 (30,400) full-time employees. Volvo Cars head office, product development, marketing and administration functions are mainly located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Volvo Cars head office for China is located in Shanghai. The company’s main car production plants are located in Gothenburg (Sweden), Ghent (Belgium), South Carolina (US), Chengdu and Daqing (China), while engines are manufactured in Skövde (Sweden) and Zhangjiakou (China) and body components in Olofström (Sweden).

The reduction in reaction time has been estimated at 0.5 seconds, with the consequent reduction in braking distance. However, the probability of avoiding an accident does not depend on the system, but on the road conditions and the driver behind the vehicle which brakes suddenly.

This system, called EBD (Emergency Brake Display) or Emergency Braking Alert, helps drivers of other vehicles to detect when we are performing emergency braking.

Sharing such data in real time can provide a strong boost to overall traffic safety and becomes more influential the more cars are connected. Since last year, Volvo Cars and Volvo Trucks have shared data to alert drivers of nearby hazards in Sweden and Norway.

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“The more vehicles we have sharing safety data in real time, the safer our roads become. We hope to establish more collaborations with partners who share our commitment to safety,” said Malin Ekholm.

The system causes the brake lights to flash rapidly when the brakes are applied powerfully and quickly in an emergency situation, alerting drivers behind the vehicle and giving them additional warning time to take the necessary measures.

This system provides information to drivers behind the vehicle that are equipped with the system and is effective on the road. This helps avoid or minimize rear-end collisions.

Finally, the company announced that for the first time, it is making its safety knowledge easily accessible in a central digital library, which it urges the car industry to use in the interest of safer roads for all.

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For the 2017 financial year, Volvo Car Group recorded an operating profit of 14,061 MSEK (11,014 MSEK in 2016). Revenue over the period amounted to 210,912 MSEK (180,902 MSEK). For the full year 2018, global sales reached a record 642,253 cars, an increase of 12.4 per cent versus 2017. The results underline the comprehensive transformation of Volvo Cars’ finances and operations in recent years, positioning the company for its next growth phase.

Last month Volvo Cars made a number of announcements aimed at supporting better driver behaviour and safer driving. From 2020, all Volvos will be speed-limited at 180 kph. Starting in the early 2020s, the company will also install in-car cameras and other sensors that monitor the driver and allow the car to intervene if a clearly intoxicated or distracted driver is risking an accident involving serious injury or death.

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Safety research by Volvo shows that adjusting speeds to the actual traffic situation can radically reduce the risk for accidents. By alerting people to dangers ahead in a timely manner and allowing them to adapt with time to spare, connected safety technologies can support better driver behaviour and boost traffic safety.

The technology allows Volvo cars to communicate with each other and alert drivers of nearby slippery road conditions and hazards via a cloud based network.

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The Emergency Brake Display (EBD) system has no specific additional cost, programming how the brake light works is the only thing that varies because the component is standard equipment in vehicles that install this.

“Sharing real-time safety data between cars can help avoid accidents,” said Malin Ekholm, head of Volvo Cars Safety Centre. “Volvo owners directly contribute to making roads safer for other drivers that enable the feature, while they also benefit from early warnings to potentially dangerous conditions ahead.”

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In terms of the Emergency Brake Display (EBD) system, it is important to remember that other drivers must be familiar with it or know what the flashing brake lights mean and how they should react to these lights.

Meanwhile, Slippery Road Alert increases the driver's awareness of both current road conditions and those on the road ahead, by anonymously collecting road surface information from cars further ahead on the road and warning drivers approaching a slippery road section in advance.

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* Hazard Light Alert and Slippery Road Alert is available on all Volvos based on the company’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) or Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) from model year 2016 and onwards.

Hazard Light Alert and Slippery Road Alert were first introduced in 2016 on Volvo’s 90 Series cars in Sweden and Norway. Next week the features become available to Volvo drivers across Europe. They come as standard on all new model year 2020 Volvos and can be retrofitted on selected earlier models*.

Volvo has been in operation since 1927. Today, Volvo Cars is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales of 642,253 cars in 2018 in about 100 countries. Volvo Cars has been under the ownership of the Zhejiang Geely Holding (Geely Holding) of China since 2010. It formed part of the Swedish Volvo Group until 1999, when the company was bought by Ford Motor Company of the US. In 2010, Volvo Cars was acquired by Geely Holding.

On introduction, Volvo Cars’ systems were the first of their kind in the automotive industry. As soon as any equipped Volvo switches on its hazard lights, the Hazard Light Alert sends a signal to all nearby Volvo cars connected to the cloud service, warning drivers to help avoid potential accidents. This is particularly useful on blind corners and over the crest of hills in the road.

It is only a warning system for the vehicle behind, so it is only effective if the driver of the following vehicle notices the flashing brake light signal.