Active Safety at Volvo Cars - current status and future challenges
Jonas Ekmark, Volvo Cars
Abstract. Mobility is necessary and its negative side-effects need to be counteracted. The World Health Organization estimates 1.2 million fatalities per year occur due to traffic accidents. The rate of injuries is about 10 to 100 times more frequent. During the last 50 years, strong focus on enhanced crashworthiness of vehicles has reduced the injury rate significantly. Today, technologies that aim to avoid crashes are quickly becoming frequent and beneficial. Electronic Stability Control has proved to reduce roadway departure accidents by 30 percent or more. New technologies are being used to support the driver, and even control the vehicle autonomously in critical situations. Implementations typically use sensors, numerical control, and electro-mechanical actuators that work to protect the vehicle and its occupants. Adding wireless communication between vehicles and the infrastructure will open up new opportunities for increased traffic safety. The presentation will show examples on such potential future technologies and discuss some of the technical, commercial, and driver-vehicle interaction-related challenges.
Biography. Jonas Ekmark received a M.Sc. in Electrotechnical Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology in 1991. He has been working in automotive research and development of active safety-related technologies at SAAB Automobile and Volvo Cars. His technical experience includes fully active suspension, semi-active suspension, traction control, electronic stability control, friction estimation, collision warning, collision mitigation/avoidance by braking, lane keeping control, and drowsiness detection. He currently holds a management role as "Active Safety Leader" in Volvo Cars.