Category: News

Volvo wants to make car-bike crashes safer, develops crash test with POC

Crash testing for bicycle helmets

Crash testing for bicycle helmets

Volvo

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Volvo always seems to be up to something new in the world of safety, and now it's working with another Swedish company called POC to learn about and ultimately improve bicycle safety. Specifically, Volvo and POC (which makes cycling safety gear and apparel) are figuring out crash testing for bike helmets as related to cars. Any time a car crashes into a cyclist is scary, and this testing is a step toward developing safer helmets and maybe even safer cars.

This new crash testing is done with crash dummies wearing POC bike helmets on their heads. Volvo says "they are launched towards different areas of the hood of a static Volvo car, at different speeds and angles for various measurements." It's interesting to watch in the video Volvo and POC made — the "dummies" are basically hard, round objects inside the helmet, and they get thrown into the car with some serious speed. There will also be testing of dummies without helmets, to have a point of comparison.


Apparently, current bike helmet testing procedures aren't very high-tech in nature. Volvo and POC say most regulatory testing involves dropping helmets from different heights onto flat or angled surfaces, without taking various forms of vehicle impacts into account. This new testing should help POC design its helmets to better withstand an impact from the stupid-heavy missiles we all ride around in called cars. Volvo claims this testing will also provide insights it can take apply to vehicle design in the future.

There are tons of bikers on the roads in cities, so this testing seems like a good idea. Mobility scooter riders seem to be at just as much risk these days, as Birds and Limes zip through traffic and on sidewalks in cities all over. However, we've all noticed that helmets don't appear to be top of mind with scooter riders. Perhaps in the future we'll have helmets that can save more of our heads when smacked by a car, just as Volvo and POC are testing here.

Nissan brings ProPILOT driver assist to Japanese market Skyline sedan

Nissan ProPILOT

Nissan is introducing some new, advanced driver assist systems for the Japanese market Skyline sedan this fall. Similarly to Tesla's Navigate on Autopilot, the updated ProPILOT system now combines navigation and automatic lane-changing. In addition, hands-off driving is enabled when certain guidelines are met and the driver is paying attention to the road ahead. Earlier ProPILOT iterations have required the driver to keep a hand on the wheel at all times.

This advanced cruise control/lane keeping assist now allows hands-off driving in a single highway lane, while constantly monitoring the driver's attentiveness, as the system will need the driver to take over in a sudden situation. With a pre-defined route activated on the navigation system and relying on a suite of cameras and radars, the ProPILOT equipped Skyline is able to change lanes and choose the correct ramp; at the highway exit ramp, the system prompts the driver to take full control of the car, both with audio and visual cues.

The driver authorizes the suggested moves by placing their hands on the steering wheel and pressing a switch, and in the event of a lane change to overtake a slower-moving vehicle, by using the turn signal. Nissan calls the hands-off driving capabilities a "world first", but like Engadget points out, the Cadillac SuperCruise also allows driving hands-off in a single lane, as long as a lane change isn't needed. The hands-off mode will not be available in two-way traffic, tunnels, toll areas or "winding roads", according to Nissan.

The "navigated highway driving" assist will be made available on the Skyline series in the fall of 2019; presumably, this means the premium sedan line and excludes the GT-R. No corresponding U.S. market Infiniti availability has yet been announced.

Volvo introduces new service that tells you what to do after an accident

Volvo Car Accident Advisor app

Volvo just released a new mobile service designed to guide you through what to do after a car crash. It's a simple bit of tech, but might prove helpful if you weren't up to speed on what to do after a light brush up with another vehicle.

The service is called Car Accident Advisor. After confirming to Volvo Customer Care that you are uninjured and not in need of emergency services, you'll get a text to your phone that links you to this service. Assuming you have an internet connection, the application will proceed to guide you through the necessary steps one should take after getting into an accident.



Volvo says the app will prompt the driver to capture photos and write down facts about the accident. It asks if other vehicles are involved, determines your exact location and allows you to pinpoint the areas of the car that were damaged. After doing that "paperwork," Volvo then allows you to submit it in a nicely organized report directly to your insurer. This allows you to get your insurance claim in the process right away, hopefully speeding up the entire process. The last guided step Volvo offers is a body shop/service finder. It lists approved Volvo shops and can arrange a tow to those shops, so you can theoretically get a quick start on repairs.

The benefits for someone unprepared are obvious, but this could be handy for experienced drivers, too, since an accident can be pretty disorienting. Volvo says the service will work on all model year 2015.5 or newer Volvos. If you have a Volvo older than that, you can trigger the service manually with a phone call to Volvo Car Customer Care. There is no cost to using the Accident Advisor either way.

Google Assistant driving mode announced at Google I/O

Check out Google's new driving mode.

Check out Google's new driving mode.

Google

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Google I/O 2019 is in full swing, and there's actually a bit of car news coming out of the big tech event. Allow us to introduce you to Google Assistant's driving mode. If you're familiar with Google's dedicated phone app, Android Auto, then this will look quite familiar to you. That app is different than but ultimately very similar to Android Auto on your car's infotainment display, but it's meant to be controlled via your phone for people who don't have cars with Android Auto capability.

The new Assistant driving mode takes the current Android Auto phone app and essentially renders it obsolete, while performing many of the same functions. Its main use is as a navigation device — you can make it use either Google Maps or Waze by default. Assistant driving mode can be set to launch on your Android phone automatically when it's connected to your car's Bluetooth or you say, "Hey Google, let's drive."

Upon launching, there's a dashboard that's personalized to you. The entire experience is heavily voice driven, so you can either tell it what you want next, or tap the suggested options on screen. Navigation suggestions are based on your calendar, normal routine or recently searched locations. Audio suggestions consist of recently played things or recommendations based on your preferences. And of course, you can call someone or text someone using voice control with the app, too. The actual feature set of Google Assistant driving mode is extremely similar to Android Auto, (which just had a big update announced yesterday) it just comes with a different user interface for the typically smaller screen that phones have versus infotainment systems.

Also announced at Google I/O is easier communication between Google Assistant and your car if so equipped. Instead of going through multiple commands to control your car via Assistant, now you just need one or two. Google says that Hyundais equipped with the Blue Link app, and Mercedes equipped with the Mercedes Me Connect feature will be able to take advantage of these simplified commands initially. For example, Google says one command of, "Hey Google, turn on the car A/C to 70 degrees" will now do the trick. Previously, Hyundai said it would involve a back and forth between you and your phone to finally get the command executed.

All of these new features are said to be arriving to your phone via an update this summer.

Android Auto gets a big update, and it’s going to be way better

Google unveils its Android Auto update.

Google unveils its Android Auto update.

Autoblog

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Android Auto users are in for a treat as Google just unveiled a complete overhaul of the interface. We can safely say it looks a whole lot better than the current system, and we're excited to try it out.

To begin, there's a new launcher. Instead of the five buttons along the bottom, now there's an array of apps to choose from in a vertically scrolling interface. This looks a whole lot more like the app drawer on your actual phone, and should make choosing your desired navigation or audio app much more intuitive. The launcher looks more like Apple CarPlay, but scrolls vertically instead of sliding from page to page horizontally.

Even more is the new "navigation bar" you see on the bottom. This bar stays on your screen and changes its function based on what app you're using at the time. For example, if you're using navigation with Google Maps and listening to a podcast at the same time, you can fast forward or rewind the podcast without having to leave the Google Maps app because the navigation bar has audio playback controls on it. Also, if you have the music app of your choice loaded up while navigation is running, your next move/direction stays plastered on the bottom navigation bar. What this does is reduce the amount of inputs and taps because you don't have to switch apps to reach your desired controls. This is a big step forward if we're thinking about driver distractions, because now you can pay less attention to navigating through the screens and more on the road.

Then there are several less significant but still noteworthy additions. Google is introducing a newly-designed notification center that allows you to see recent calls, listen to messages and view alerts. There's also a new dark theme that was sorely needed. Apple CarPlay has always looked more polished with its dark theme that blends in nicely with most car's interiors. Now Android has them matched, and it looks just as elegant. Finally, Android is adding in wide-screen optimization for some of the abnormally wide displays we're seeing in cars today. This will make sure the OS is using all the possible screen real estate provided. Google says the update will be rolling out to all Android Auto equipped cars this summer.

Study: European fully adaptive headlights better, should be legal in U.S.

Audi Matrix LED headlights illustration

Over in Europe and in Canada, some automakers offer fancy LED headlights that can selectively dim sections of the light to prevent glare while maintaining long-distance illumination elsewhere. And according to testing by AAA, these lights don't just sound good on paper, they offer greater illumination and potential for reduced glare over U.S.-spec lights.

In testing, the organization found that the adaptive lights provided 12.5 percent more high-beam illumination than the U.S. versions. In low-beam mode, U.S. lights were better by just 1.9 percent. But the big advantage is running high-beams even with nearby cars, and AAA says that comparing U.S. low beams with the adaptive headlights running in normal high-beam mode, the adaptive lights can illuminate 86 percent more area ahead of the car. Perceived glare from all lights were in the low range, and when going over hills, the adaptive lights usually caused less glare than U.S.-spec lights, though occasionally the adaptive lights were slow to adjust over hills.

So why don't we have these lights available? The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) code doesn't allow for low-beams and high-beams to be active simultaneously, which is required for adaptive lights to work. In addition, the government uses static tests for lights with brightness limits for low- and high-beams. Because adaptive lights only dim select areas, the overall brightness will be too high.

Considering the benefits of adaptive lights, it's no surprise that AAA feels that the government needs to change the regulations to allow them. AAA isn't the only group pushing for European-style lighting standards, either, as Toyota, VW and BMW petitioned the government for revisions, and NHTSA is developing regulations that allow the lights. AAA supports NHTSA's move to permit adaptive headlights. It also has its own suggested changes such as more dynamic testing, including road tests. Additionally, AAA proposes upping the high-beam output limit from 150,000 candela to the European 430,000 candela, provided that the lights can start adjusting at the 400-meter mark Europe tests the lights at rather than the U.S. 220-meter mark. The organization notes that the higher light power is a contributing factor to the European lights' better illumination.

Volvo expands connected car alerts across Europe

Slippery Road Alert demonstration on Volvo V60

Volvo is expanding its connected-vehicle safety technology across Europe that lets Volvo automobiles share signals whenever one vehicle switches on its hazard lights to highlight potential obstructions, slippery roads or other dangers. The company last year rolled out the service in Sweden and Norway on its 90 Series passenger cars and Volvo Trucks.

Next week, the Hazard Light Alert and Slippery Road Alert will become available to all Volvo drivers in Europe, the automaker says. They'll be standard on all new 2020 models and can be retrofitted on certain models built on Volvo's Scalable Product Architecture or Compact Modular Architecture going back to the 2016 model year.

The Hazard Light Alert sends a signal to all nearby Volvo cars connected to the cloud service whenever a driver in an equipped Volvo switches on the hazard lights, warning other drivers to help avoid potential accidents, particularly on blind corners or hill crests. The Slippery Road Alert anonymously collects information about road surfaces from cars further ahead and warns approaching drivers about slippery conditions before they reach them.

It's the latest step for the brand synonymous with safety to make roads safer. Volvo last month announced it will limit the top speed of all its cars from 2020 onward to 180 kph, or 112 mph. It also said it plans to deploy cameras and other in-car sensors that can monitor the driver's state and attentiveness to prevent distracted or drunk driving.

Of course, the broadening of these technologies for now only go as far as fellow Volvo drivers. So the company announced that for the first time, it's making what it has learned about safety over more than 40 years of research, segmented by decade, publicly available in a digital library for other automakers to use and replicate.

Why the manual transmission can save us from the machines

Male hand holding manual gearbox in car, test drive of new automobile, closeup

Not long after purchasing my first car with parking sensors, after a few delighted first days marveling at how they helped me park in the tightest of spots, I found myself in some situation where they were beeping incessantly, so I turned them off. A half-hour later, I listened for beeping that never came as I backed into a wall, bruising my ego and the bumper skin. In a New York Times op-ed over the weekend, psychiatrist Vatsal G. Thakkar tells a similar story in which he placed blind reliance on proximity sensors — in a car that didn't have them.

He cites the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who says, "Many drivers are not aware of the limitations" of driver-assist technologies, while one in five drivers have had an accident or near miss because they too fully relied on these systems.

Thakkar points out something we often say at Autoblog: Driver-assistance technologies can be useful, but they require increased attentiveness, not less. It's not even a trust-but-verify situation — if you have these technologies, don't trust. Ever. Do have a thorough understanding of how they work, how they can be fooled, and be prepared to override them at a second's notice.


One might ask: If I have to be so attentive operating these technologies, then why have them in the first place? Why not just ... be attentive? Good question. I think we all have a pretty good sense that the impetus for lane-keeping, adaptive cruise and various other systems, in part or in full, is driver distraction brought on primarily by smartphones and infotainment screens. Driver distraction is undoubtedly a big factor in our alarming trend of traffic fatalities. But as Thakkar asks, "Could technology designed to save us from our lapses in attention actually make us even less attentive?"

In his concise piece, Thakkar makes the case that over-reliance on technology can be blamed for recent Tesla crashes, medical errors and even the recent crashes of Boeing 737 Max 8 jetliners.

But his solution is one after our own hearts, and why we suggest you read his piece. The answer to all of the above is simple, engaging and beautiful — it's the manual transmission. When your brain and all four limbs are fully engaged in the driving experience, who needs beeps?

So get one today, while you still can.

Volvo will limit top speed on all its vehicles to 112 mph

Volvo V60 gauges

Volvo has announced that it will limit the top speed of its cars to 180 kph, or 112 mph. The carmaker says it wants to send "a strong signal about the dangers of speeding," and from 2020, no Volvo cars can go faster than that. The limit is part of Volvo's Vision 2020, which aims for zero road deaths or severe injuries in a Volvo by 2020. Polestar models were not mentioned.

"Volvo is a leader in safety: We always have been and we always will be," said Håkan Samuelsson, president and chief executive. "Because of our research, we know where the problem areas are when it comes to ending serious injuries and fatalities in our cars. And while a speed limitation is not a cure-all, it's worth doing if we can even save one life."

Volvo's flagship XC90 SUV currently has a top speed of 131 mph.

Samuelsson, speaking ahead of the Geneva Motor Show, said it is unlikely to meet the Vision 2020 goal without additional measures to address driver behavior.

"We've realized that to close the gap we have to focus more on the human factors," Samuelsson told Reuters. Volvo did not elaborate on the data but said its passenger fatalities were already well below the industry average before the goal was announced in 2007.

In addition to the speed cap, Volvo plans to deploy technology using cameras that monitor the driver's state and attentiveness to prevent people driving while distracted or intoxicated, two other big factors in accidents, Samuelsson said.

There's also nothing preventing these Volvos from being driven at 60 mph in a 30 mph zone yet, except for proposed EU-mandated automatic speed limiters. But Volvo is also looking into limiting lower speeds with technology. Volvo's statement says: "Apart from limiting top speeds, the company is also investigating how a combination of smart speed control and geofencing technology could automatically limit speeds around schools and hospitals in future." In other words, if drivers cannot be trusted to make the decision to slow down, the cars will do that for them.

It has to be said the 112 mph limit is somewhat peculiar. Even if Japanese home market cars have had the same speed limit implemented for ages, there aren't that many countries where you can legally pass 110 mph. European highway limits are usually around 75-80 mph at maximum, and crashing at 90-100 is already dangerous enough. It feels like Volvo has set a limit no one would ever reach in normal driving, except perhaps on the German Autobahn. Samuelsson conceded that the limit could be a turnoff for German buyers.

That also brings us to an another aspect of the matter: which more strongly affects sales, a message that a manufacturer voluntarily limits its cars from reaching a certain speed, or that the cars are guaranteed to attain a given speed that few buyers ever reach?

"We cannot please everybody, but we think we will attract new customers," the CEO said, recalling that the roll-out of three-point seat belts pioneered by Volvo in 1959 had initially been criticized by some as intrusive.

"I think Volvo customers in Germany will appreciate that we're doing something about safety," he said.

Material from Reuters was used in this report.

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