Picture the scene. You’re enjoying a twisty road in the countryside. Suddenly, your car car alerts you that there’s been an accident ahead.
As you calmly decelerate and come around the next curve, you see a crashed car in your lane and thanks to the warning you were able to react in time.
This technology is now a reality in Europe, with Volvo having recently announced its Accident Ahead Alert system. For the first time, cars can alert drivers of accidents ahead directly using real-time data from a traffic management centre.
The technology will be available in compatible Volvo cars in Europe, starting in Denmark.
The system can alert the driver about a traffic accident up to a few hundred metres ahead. The location data is provided by national road authorities and compatible cars, starting with other Volvo cars.
“Using our groundbreaking connected safety technology, our Accident Ahead Alert can help Volvo drivers avoid unpleasant surprises, while contributing to making roads safer for all,” says Åsa Haglund, Head of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre.
“Thanks to our collaboration with the Danish Road Directorate and other partners in the Data for Road Safety ecosystem, we can introduce this new feature and continue our leadership in safety innovations.”
Volvo is planning to integrate more traffic data shared by other partners in the European Data for Road Safety ecosystem, including national traffic management centres in other countries and cars from other brands.
To that end the Swedish carmaker is calling for more road authorities to share anonymous traffic accident data and for other car companies to offer similar technologies.
“We’re happy that Volvo Cars, as the first car maker to do so, has started using our new real-time traffic event data feed,” says Stine Bendsen, Head of the Danish Traffic Management Centre at the Danish Road Directorate.
“A quick alert about an accident ahead gives the driver more time to slow down and increase the distance to the car in front. This helps to lower the risk of follow-up collisions and protect the people working to clear the road.”
Volvo owners in Europe can contribute to road safety by opting for data sharing by activating the ‘connected safety’ option in the car’s centre display. The car will then be able to alert the driver of an accident ahead by using the hazard light alert in the dashboard and, if available, the head-up display. Volvo says only the essential information will be shared with other cars and the data will be anonymised to ensure privacy.
IOL Motoring