In what the partners say is “a ground-breaking collaboration”, Volvo Cars, ‘protective gravity sports gear manufacturer’ POC and Ericsson will present an innovative safety technology connecting drivers and cyclists for the first time ever at the International CES in Las Vegas (6-9 January 2015).
The technology consists of a connected car and helmet prototype that will establish two-way communication offering proximity alerts to drivers and cyclists and thereby avoid accidents.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“No car manufacturer has previously put a stake in the ground to help address the problem by using connected safety technology – until now,” Volvo said.
Volvo Cars’ City Safety system – standard on the redesigned XC90 – is a technology that can detect, warn and auto-brake to avoid collisions with cyclists. It was the industry’s first step to seriously address cyclist safety. This commitment has paved the way for the innovative helmet technology concept.
Using a popular smartphone app for bicyclists, like Strava, the cyclist’s position can be shared through the 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 driver will be alerted to a cyclist nearby through a head-up display alert – even if he happens to be in a blind spot, eg behind a bend or another vehicle or hardly visible at night. The cyclist will be warned via a helmet-mounted alert light.
The concept is a result of a Swedish partnership between Volvo Cars, POC, the manufacturer of protective gear for gravity sports athletes and cyclists and Ericsson, which specialises in communications technology and services. The cloud-based safety concept offers development opportunities and will ultimately help save lives across the whole spectrum of unprotected road users, the partners claim.
Klas Bendrik, VP and group CIO at Volvo Cars said: “The partnership between Volvo Cars, POC and Ericsson is an important milestone in investigating the next steps towards [our] vision to build cars that will not crash. But now, by exploring cloud-based safety systems, we are getting ever closer to eliminating the remaining blind spots between cars and cyclists and by that avoid collisions.”
