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https://www.volvocars.com/en-e...

Born on the racing circuits of Sweden !

A very poorly written article which resulted in a poorly written summary.

Buried in the article: "Uber also disabled the Volvo's factory-equipped automatic emergency braking system when the vehicle is in autonomous mode, the report said."

The Volvo XC90 comes with a feature they call "City Safety". https://www.media.volvocars.co...

This is an auto-braking system with sensors. Uber's autonomous system has its own braking and sensors. It's understandable from a system perspective that they don't have two separate, independent, systems deciding when to apply the brakes operational at the same time.

The poorly written article makes it sound like Uber's system either didn't have a feature for braking for obstacles or that it was disabled. This is not accurate. It does appear that Uber's system failed to either detect the pedestrian or to brake when detected.

It's probably also true that when testing they don't use the factory cruise control to maintain speed on the highway. There are likely other standard functions not used when the autonomous equipment is under test.

Volvo is a high-end, low-volume manufacturer. Worldwide sales are about half a million out of total worldwide sales of nearly 90 million.

Whether this is a smart move in their chosen market segment remains to be seen. But it's not going to noticeably move the needle in the overall market.

Volvo is marketing this is a warning system for large animals:
http://support.volvocars.com/i...

I saw a short TV report about Volvo's autonomous car program. The idea is that the car will drive itself when driving is boring, and under good conditions. Roads in Sweden are usually very well marked BTW. They are actually testing a significant number of cars in Gothenburg.

When conditions merit human control the car will signal the driver to take control. If this does not happen in a reasonable amount of time the car will pull out of traffic and stop. The stated goal is zero deaths in Volvos by 2020. Also the CEO said that the liability issue was simple. Volvo would take full responsibility. He added that any company unwilling to own the consequences of this tech had no business making it. The interior of the car was modified so that the driver could do other stuff during the "boring" bits. I remember this because I cannot wait for autonomous cars to really start saving lives (Maybe my own). Thirty thousand dead in car crashes every year in the US alone. Let me count the ways. Okay. Maybe not right now.

In a related note, Uber just pledged $150M on an autonomous drive project together with Volvo Cars (who threw in the same amount), so there does not seem to be any panic regarding liquid assets: Volvo Cars and Uber join forces to develop autonomous driving cars.

The Model S outsells every model in Volvo's lineup so clearly Tesla is doing something customers appreciate more than Volvo

Volvo's customers have fourteen models to chose from.

Volvo sold 52,279 cars in March alone, up 12% from last year. Volvo Car Group Retail Sales By Car Model - March 2016

Volvo is serious about autodrive, with full autonomy coming soon, possibly as early as 2018. But there is no question that Volvo is building some very good cars right now.

Crashworthiness:

Small overlap front G
Moderate overlap front G
Side G
Roof strength G
Head restraints & seats G

Crash avoidance & Mitigation

Front crash prevention Superior [6 Points]

Low speed autobrake 2 Points
High speed autobrake 3 Points

Child Seat Anchors (LATCH) ease of use A

2016 Top Safety Pick - 2016 Volvo XC90

And let us not forget the texting morons, the gabbing imbeciles, the makeup artists, the doped up Cretans, the drunks, the wankers, the eaters, the video watchers. I cannot wait for autonomous cars. I like to drive, and pay attention, but it is getting crazy out there. Thirty thousand dead each year in the US. The cars are safer but the people are far more dangerous with all their distractions and bad habits.

Volvo has a good practical road map to autonomous cars. And critically the company is willing to accept liability for accidents in their autonomous cars. They will soon have real world testing in Gothenburg -- 2017 -- with ordinary drivers in the car. The Volvos will drive themselves under certain conditions -- usually when driving is the most boring -- and will cue the drivers to take the wheel when the situation warrants, or if the driver simply wants to drive. If the car cannot get the driver's attention when things have gotten too complex for it... it will pull over. I am not a shill for Volvo but have been following the autonomous car story across the board and the Swedes are kind of sticking this IMHO This is what I am talking about

Yeah, it's pretty simple: don't get a car with OnStar (I think there's a competing service out there like this from one of the other makers)

I'm afraid your information is out of date there. Maybe it's different where you are, but if you look through the web site of almost any mid-range or high-end brand here in the UK, connectivity features are all the rage and pretty much everyone now has them.

Audi has Audi Connect.

BMW has various features including Teleservices and Emergency Call.

Volvo has Sensus.

Ford has Ford SYNC.

And the list goes on. Some of these seem, at the moment, to be primarily about things like hooking in your phone, presumably so you can do exciting things like kill someone while distracted by your car awkwardly mispronouncing the e-mail you just received. A few, the Volvo Sensus for example, sound downright creepy to me in terms of auto-updating software in your vehicle without any user interaction.

And if you think every major car manufacturer and every major car insurer isn't eyeing up the possibilities of phoning home with driver performance data whether you like it or not, I know a prince in Nigeria who has a really great offer that might interest you.

Here. I went and dug this out, I decided to not be too lazy:
http://www.volvocars.com/us/ab...

The bottom-most section is the more interesting part to me. The rest is also interesting. That's "just a few" of their examples. I didn't notice a more comprehensive list but it's impressive. When my kids were younger and moved in with me, instead of staying with their mother, I got rid of my sports car and got a Volvo.

The person you're replying too is a bit mistaken. Volvo did not invent or even introduce the first seat belts. That's a common mistake found on the internet. I'm a car aficionado but not an automobile historian. I also own two Volvos. What an engineer for Volvo *did* invent was the 3-point safety harness (seat belt). Lots of other cars had belts prior to that. I've seen a Nash from the 40s that had factory belts.

I love Volvo and all but, well... Hmm, lemme find a source 'cause someone might argue (everyone seem to think Volvo invented 'em)...

Here you go:
http://www.volvocars.com/intl/...

That's from Volvo themselves. If they'd invented the seat belt then they'd have listed it. They don't. They specifically mention having invented the 3 point system. Come to think of it, I've seen some old Saabs that had lap belts too. I dunno when those came out or anything.

.

TFA appears to be some kind of FUD. No one has any doubt that Autonomous Vehicles will do better than people. With thirty thousand dead every year in the US it is arguable that trained chimps could do better than people.

Some sold-in-Europe cars flash the brake lights under ABS braking, then put on the hazard lights until the driver speeds up again: http://support.volvocars.com/u...

To say that all Volvo's are sedate would be untrue...

Actually, as someone who just bought an Audi, I disagree. The Volvo was by far the most sedate brand in its class. BMW/MB/Audi all had it beat. Even the Hyundai blew it into the river for fun factor. (The new Genesis by Hyundai...especially with the BIG motor...is a beast.)

To say that all Volvo's are sedate would be untrue...

Volvo doesn't sell any cars with 4-cylinder engines in the US? Really?
Don't let the fact that it is called "T5" or "T6" fool you. Some of them have 4 cylinders despite the name, for instance:
http://www.volvocars.com/us/al... (this is a US site)

Of course if you compare their reliability with a typical American car, they are reliable. If you compare it with Japanese, they are not.

Anyway, the argument was that Volvo does not use Ford engines, but in fact they do use them in most of the current models. Also other parts of the current model range share stuff with Ford lineup. The Geely stuff will start coming later this year.

...people wanting European luxury cars used to be told to take a trip there, buy it, and drive it for a few weeks so that it was legally a used car, rather than new, then ship it home...

Some companies still are...

OK if you actually clicked on the link , the Vision 2020 page has a tiny pic of a super cute model with little test dummy stickers on her. I would totally get in the back seat and have an accident with her. Titanium bathtub frame. Thats all you need.

Great concept, but there are some rather glaring problems.

Let's take the "Pedestrian detection with auto brake" feature for example:
http://www.volvocars.com/intl/top/about/corporate/volvo-sustainability/safety/pages/pedestrian-detection-with-full-auto-brake.aspx

Lovely in theory, except for all the moronic teens who will delight in jumping out in front of Volvos confident that the car can't hit them. You're going to have idiot kids hit by drivers of old style cars, as well as a whole bunch of tail end collisions caused by this. It'd render roads near schools undrivable at closing time.

Oh, and you have to love the fact that they're adding a warning light that flashes when it sees a problem. Which seems to miss the fact that the warning light itself is going to immediately distract you, and make it more likely that you're not going to see the pedestrian it's trying to warn you of.

While backed by the best of intentions, I just can't see this becoming reality for a long while.

On several of the current Volvo models, a feature called "collision warning and auto-brake" is an available option, and the new Volvo XC60 comes with a standard feature called "City Safety" which completely avoids collisions for speeds up to 16km/h and reduces impact for speeds up to 30km/h. You can play a flash demonstration of city safety here: http://www.volvocars.com/intl/campaigns/MY09/XC60/Pages/XC60.aspx The active safety features on the S60 concept are not new, but maybe they will be standard, not optional.

The Volvo XC60 (flash-needed) has optional:

• blindside radar
• lane departure warning
• adaptive cruise control that senses the speed and distance of the car ahead
• automatic braking in stop-and-go traffic ("City sense")
• collision warning with automatic braking (at highway speeds)

Whereas City Sense automatically brakes to avoid a collision, collision warning with automatic braking does not avoid collision but reduces the severity of the collision.

I've seen this advertised on TV in the UK for a production car, I think it was the V70; and it's mentioned in the first sentence of the Safety section of the S80's website: http://www.volvocars.com/UK/ALL-CARS-MY09/VOLVO-S80/Pages/default.aspx... they call it Collision Warning with Auto Brake. Really, this is old --- the current model of the S80 is a couple of years old at least.

A whole new batch of devices and stores support FLAC: for portables there are the iAUDIO T2 and iAUDIO F2, TrekStor's Vibez, the Onda VX737, and the AP3000 from Green Apple. For the home stereo, Slim Devices' Transporter and Ziova's CS510 and CS505. For music in FLAC format check out digital-tunes for electronic and underground, or FestivaLink.net for live shows.

Bluedot's BMP-1430 portable supports FLAC.

AudioReQuest's new S.Series music servers support FLAC.

Cowon's A2 now supports FLAC with the latest firmware, and Olive's new Opus both plays and records to FLAC.

The new Iwod G10 portable supports FLAC.

Want some FLAC with your Volvo? Volvo's Digital Jukebox, developed with PhatNoise, is fully integrated with the car's audio system and available for the S60, V70, XC70, and S80. PhatNoise's PhatBox in 2002 was the first device to support FLAC natively and has gained a loyal following.

Try this:

http://new.volvocars.com/wwygavt/

Yes, maybe so, but this is cool in an entirely different way. This is LINUX! I wonder if there will be a sourcefourge project for the above mentioned parkd. Now if the demo videos had only been of the S60R (semi-cheesy flash overload alert)...

Sweden already makes disposable cars, so I guess progressing into the PC business is natural enough...

The link to Volvo is wrong. Volvo has nothing to do with Volvo cars. Volvo Corporation makes trucks, marine engines, aircraft engines, and used to make cars. The automobile division was sold to Ford about 7 years ago. The correct link is VolvoCars. Long-time Volvo enthusiasts, such as myself (who loved our 140s, 240, and 740s) are somewhat skeptical of the quality of the newer Volvo cars made under Ford management. For instance the latest S40 (due out this spring) shares a common platform with the Ford Focus and the Mazda 3, but costs about twice as much because of the Volvo branding.

prefer our cars to be made of metal.

www.volvocars.com

//Phizzy

is the idea that the engine controls (or any other drivetrain subsystem) would be running on anything but a dedicated device chock full of proven code.

Of course, the whole car is a network of dedicated devices. Thats how everybody does it.

Switching from Ford-owned Volvo Cars to self-owned AB Volvo, I would recommend reading some of these articles. Heck, they even have serveral connected ECU's in construction equipment (like a wheel loader or articulated hauler)... Don't know about the OS, though, but I wouldn't think that somebody would rely on Win9x for critical applications...

Here in the Netherlands almost every station sells LPG too, but I'm afraid in the larger part of the world, it's not really popular yet. The only marque I know to sell cars with an LPG-installation is Volvo, they sell most of their cars in a Bi-Fuel-version.

Problem with LPG, apart from the availability, is the reach of a tank: 300km on one tank is about as far as you get (although Volvo claims their cars run as far on LPG as on normal fuel), while my Peugeot 306 diesel runs over 800km on a tank. Of course I'm talking about European cars, I don't know how things are Down Under.

Different problem is the place of the LPG-tank. Until recently, the only way to have your car breathe LPG was to insert a huge gas tank in your trunk. Now that's a very serious reason not to choose LPG. Nowadays, most cars can be equipped with a nicely hidden tank: usually in the place of the spare wheel. Which gives another problem: you can't drive without a spare wheel (at least, not here), so you need to store that one somewhere else. Sure, you can get such a small one with which you can't drive over 80km/h, but still...

So sure, LPG is a nice alternative, but I think it's a little far-fetched to state that it's the way to go. I'd rather have a fuel-cell in my car, or an engine that runs on hydrogen and produces nothing but water. But I'm afraid it's going to take some time before we see that kind of engines appear in normal cars.