The recent on-road death of cyclist Burry Stander shocked South Africa (and especially the cycling community) and lead to outrage against motorists’ alleged lack of awareness and respect for cyclists. Volvo believes it can alleviate this conflict with its world-first cyclist-detection safety system with full auto-brake function. This is an evolution of the company’s auto-brake function that prevents rear-end collisions with other vehicles. The system consists of a radar system behind the car’s grille, a camera behind the rear-view mirror and a central-control unit to calculate the likelihood of impact. If a cyclist is travelling in the same direction as the vehicle and the system detects that the rider is swerving into its path, a warning is shown to the driver, followed by full auto-brake functionality (the car will slow at maximum deceleration without input from the driver). Even if a collision is unavoidable, the reduced impact speed should lessen the degree of injuries. The cyclist-detection safety feature will be available on all 2014 Volvos. Other manufacturers can’t adopt this technology soon enough.
Safe Cyclists
X
Related Articles
Subscribe Today
Carmag
Reviews
Buy a Car
News
Videos
Powered By
CAPE TOWN OFFICE: 36 Old Mill Road, Ndabeni, Maitland, 7405, Western Cape > Telephone: (021) 530 3300 > Fax: (021) 530 3333
© Copyright 2024 CarMag