Bicycles sharing the
road has been a debate for cities large and small for a very long time. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, nobody wants to hit
‘em.
Enter Volvo.
At the Geneva Motor
Show, the Swedish car company known for safety, has unveiled a new system that
will keep both motorists and bicyclists safe.
In what is an enhancement of automatic braking systems already in place
in many Volvo models, this new system will actually scan for bikes that are
riding parallel to the car. A spokesman
for Volvo explains that “if a cyclist heading in the same direction as the car
suddenly swerves out in front of the car as it approaches from behind and a
collision in imminent, there is an
instant warning and full braking power is applied.”
For the past few years
Volvo has been equipping cars with automatic braking that will detect a
pedestrian or another vehicle, with great success. This new innovation will be welcome in dense
urban areas where bike and car collisions are all too common, and it will add a
measure of safety in suburban and rural areas where kids risk darting in front of vehicles.
Will the day come when
cars will detect dogs, squirrels and deer?
Perhaps. Each advancement like
Volvo’s takes us one step closer to the day when we have driver-less cars.
How much would YOU trust
a car that automatically brakes?
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