Minus the armored ones. Still, the Swedish say six years from now, nobody should get killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo. Is that even possible?
Well, I asked them today about Vision 2020, Volvo's idea that by 2020 nobody will be injured or killed in a Volvo, and they have every reason to believe that the new XC90 is. The idea is that the car will prevent accidents, or at least minimize the impact by knowing in advance what's going to happen, and acting accordingly. Basically, the moment it feels you're out of control, it should take over.
That's why the XC90 auto brake prevents you from driving into somebody at an intersection, auto brake prevents you from hitting pedestrians, other cars or cyclists day and night, rear-collision detection with automatic belt tensioning and run-off road protection with the same, plus clever seats that reduce vertical forces hitting your spine by one third. And countless airbags.
Also, 40% of it is made of boron steel, which is clearly the adamantium of carbonized iron alloys.
That's all very impressive, and the next step will clearly take them towards more autonomous functions and improved communication between cars.
Would you bet on them succeeding by 2020, or is this too big of a safety challenge even for the company that invented the game?