Today, 31st January 2013, marks the 30th year since wearing seatbelts became compulsory for drivers and front-seat passengers. Volvo, a company renowned for safety and the inventor of the original seatbelt, takes a look at the future; with claims that we will live in a potentially crash-free world by 2020.
Volvo believes that we are well on our way to having self-driving, auto-piloted cars, as we already have systems such as City Safety. The collision prevention system from Volvo sends out an audible signal when it detects a potential frontal impact, before bringing the car to a stop autonomously if necessary.
External airbags, auto-piloted convoy driving and collision avoidance technology is already being tested by Volvo, with plans to go into production with it all in the next few years. Existing technology such as satellite navigation, self-parking systems and parking sensors work with these systems to help make crash-free driving a real possibility.
In a recent survey, over a quarter of those asked said that they would welcome a self-driving car; and more than 50 per cent would like to have a vehicle with an autopilot system.
Interestingly however, 60 per cent of those surveyed don't believe that technology will effectively end car crashes in the next ten years. A third also feel that an increase in motorway speed limits would be inappropriate for vehicles with autopilot systems.