Volvo Cars will showcase a new exclusive safety technology together with the all-new Volvo S60 in 2010. Volvo's experts have been developing the new groundbreaking safety technology - Collision Warning with Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Detection - for over ten years.

The new safety technology will be able to detect a pedestrian in front of the car and brake automatically if the driver doesn't react in time, to avoid an accident.

In order to test the new technology in big city traffic, a disguised prototype of the Volvo S60 with two safety experts on board was rolling through the streets of Copenhagen.

Collision Warning with Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Safety consists of a new dual-mode radar unit integrated into the car's grille, a camera behind the inside rear-view mirror and a central control unit. The radar and camera continuously monitor the road in front of the car. The radar's task is to detect objects and measure the distance to them. The camera determines what type of objects they are.

In an emergency situation, the driver is first alerted by an audible warning together with a flashing light in the windscreen's head-up display. In order to prompt an immediate, intuitive reaction, the visual warning is designed to look like a brake light coming on. If the driver does not respond to the warning and the system assesses that a collision is imminent, the car's brakes are applied with full braking power.

"Active brake deployment requires that the object is confirmed by both the radar and the camera. Thanks to state-of-the-art sensor technology, it is now possible to engage full braking power," explains Thomas Broberg.

Volvo S60 disguised prototype (2009)
Volvo S60 disguised prototype (2009) - picture 1 of 3
Volvo S60 disguised prototype (2009) - picture 2 of 3
Volvo S60 disguised prototype (2009) - picture 3 of 3