Each year, 1.3 million people die in traffic – the vast majority in the Third World. Volvo Cars’ aim is to build cars that do not crash. Already by 2020, nobody is to be injured in a new Volvo car.

Volvo Cars – which has safety as a core value – sells cars worldwide and is keenly aware that the car’s system must function in widely differing environments and situations. Thus the cars are modified to meet real conditions, and not just those of the laboratory.

“Volvo is a small brand worldwide. We can’t unilaterally create an accident-free traffic environment, but our role is to work at the forefront of safety programmes,” says Anders Eugensson, safety expert at Volvo Cars.

Driver behaviour and safety systems
The guiding principle for Volvo Cars’ safety work is to avoid conflict situations and accidents. This is a task that nowadays involves a series of systems in the cars and insight regarding the driver. In the future, the system can be customized to match the driver’s general capacity as a vehicle operator.

Volvo Cars’ zero vision entails that minor errors should not lead to drastic consequences. Conscious infringements, such as driving at 180 km/h through a housing area, cannot be covered by the traffic system. But regular natural mistakes should not lead to drastic outcomes.

Safer traffic environment
In addition to developing safe cars and attentive drivers, Volvo Cars is also focusing on creating a safer traffic environment. Various technical solutions permit the car to be updated with the latest information on the surroundings. For example, the highway infrastructure can assist by signalling where there are queues and road works underway, where there is a risk of skidding or whether you are driving on an accident-prone road and should drive very carefully.

Progress in road safety
With record low traffic fatalities in Sweden in 2010, the lowest in a hundred years, it is easy to believe that the situation is in hand. But from a global perspective, the fatalities curve worldwide has only flattened out but not declined. Between 1.2 million and 1.3 million people die in traffic each year, most of them in the developing countries. Comparing this with the aviation industry, this is equal to the crashing of seven Boeing 747s each day, all year round.