Volvo's trick new radar to help save walkers

The Volvo S60 features a radar system linked to the car's brakes to help drivers avoid pedestrians.

The pedestrian safety system in the new all-wheel-drive Volvo S60 scanned the road many metres ahead, like Kitt from the television series Knight Rider, as I nosed slowly through the narrow Portuguese village.

Workmen were repairing a stretch of footpath and, as I slowed near a corner, perhaps doing 25km/h, one of them strayed into the car's path.

In an instant, perhaps a quarter of a second, an interior alarm sounded and a warning light from the driver's display flashed.

The "pedestrian detection" system's radar, camera and advanced software was telling me and the car's computer brain that we were about to hit a human being. Its "full autobrake" component had already pre-charged the car's anchors.

It did so because Volvo had programmed the software to recognise a pedestrian's pattern of movement and to calculate whether they were likely to step in front of the car. The system can detect pedestrians 80cm tall and upwards.

Had the workman kept coming, the system would have told the car to jump on the brakes. Quicker than I could have managed. I was still wondering what all the noise and flashing lights were about when the system returned to normal. The workman stepped back. Danger averted.

"Detecting pedestrians with sufficiently high reliability has been a complex challenge," says Thomas Broberg, senior safety adviser at Volvo Cars.

"We've driven more than half a million test kilometres in real traffic to 'train' the system to recognise pedestrians' patterns of movement and their appearance in different countries and cultures."

The system expands on Volvo's City Safe technology, a low-speed collision warning programme first seen in New Zealand in the carmaker's XC60 SUV.

That system prepares for heavy braking and, if needs be, automatically jumps on the brakes with up to 50 per cent of full braking power if the driver has not responded to the alert. The new system applies 100 per cent braking power.

Pedestrian detection consists of a radar unit in the car's grille, a high-resolution camera in front of the interior rear-view mirror, and a central control unit.

The radar's task is to detect any object in front of the car and to determine the distance to it. The camera determines what type of object it is. The control unit decides whether to brake or not to brake, or to disengage drive to all wheels to aid braking. All this in half a second, says Volvo.

The carmaker claims the system can avoid a collision with a pedestrian at speeds up to 35km/h. At higher speeds, it focuses on reducing the car's speed as much as possible before impact.

For instance, if speed is cut from 50km/h to 25km/h, the system is expected to reduce the risk of pedestrian fatalities by 20 per cent. At lower speeds, says Volvo, it could reduce it by up to 85 per cent.

"The proportion of pedestrian fatalities is high today and our technology will play a major role in reducing it," says Broberg.

In Europe, 14 per cent of all traffic fatalities are pedestrians. In the United States it is 11 per cent and in China 26 per cent.

Up to 90 per cent of road accidents are caused by distraction, says Volvo. About 50 per cent of drivers hitting another vehicle from behind do not brake at all before the collision.

"We have always led the way when it comes to protecting the occupants in our cars, "says Broberg. "In recent years, we have adopted groundbreaking initiatives that help the driver avoid and mitigate accidents with other vehicles.

"Now we are taking a giant stride forward with technology that can contribute to increased safety for unprotected road users as well."

The all-wheel-drive S60 will arrive in New Zealand in limited numbers later this year. "We will have some cars for customers to see and touch then but they won't go on sale until next January," said Volvo NZ general manager Mark Patterson. No word on price yet. "Volvo is not giving me any indication whatsoever - it is staying tight-lipped about it," says Patterson.

The S60 will be followed later by the V60 station wagon. Both will sit between the $59,990 top-end S40 and the $89,990 S80 sedans.

Two S60 models will be available, both using turbocharged engines mated to six-speed automatic gearboxes with manual mode: the five-cylinder 2.4-litre 150kW/400Nm D5 diesel and the range-topping 3-litre T6 224kW/440Nm petrol unit.

The mid-size four-door is the Swedish carmaker's best model yet. It has been designed to compete with the pick of the German compact sedans, the BMW 3-Series, Audi A4 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class.

Volvo executives wouldn't be drawn on ride/handling comparisons, however. "The S60 is the dynamic benchmark for future Volvo models," said Broberg.

A few hours over mixed roads north of Portugal's capital, Lisbon, showed up the S60's good and not-so-good points on either 17 or 18-inch alloys. Its ride remains a bit jiggly over all but the best surfaces - a Volvo characteristic. The stiffer new suspension set-up isn't fond of lumps and bumps either.

But the trade-off is vastly improved dynamic performance, where a stiffer chassis, all-wheel-drive traction and sharper steering responses - with three "feel" settings - combine to help the driver to nose the S60 aggressively in and out of tight twisty stuff and settle on an uninterrupted line through high-speed sweepers.

The six-speed automatic let the car down at times, perhaps electronically mapped to default to a higher gear on a trailing throttle to help fuel economy just when you need it to hang on to third gear, for example, on more challenging roads. Manual mode improved things.

The newcomer swaps traditional boxy Volvo lines for a design that bends and flows. Front treatment is carried over from the facelifted C30 and C70 and adds to the impression of a four-door coupe rather than a traditional saloon.

The S60 is 30mm longer than the car it replaces. It is bigger inside than before, too, with intuitive controls in the "floating" centre console and first-class seating.

The sweeping coupe-like profile might make rear headroom a big tight and run-flat tyres in place of the traditional spare might annoy some owners. But the car certainly breaks new ground for Volvo.