Each year, around 1.2 million people are killed and 50 million injured in
motor vehicle crashes - a statistic Volvo plans to target with an injury-proof
car, scheduled for 2020.

GOTHENBURG, SWEDEN (APRIL 25, 2008) REUTERS -

With a push to create an injury-proof car by 2020, Volvo wants to
regain its reputation as the leader in car safety.
    The front line in Volvo's battle against injury is its safety centre in
Gothenburg - a complex analysts agree is among the most advanced in the world.

    The centre's 850-tonne crash block and two 150-metre tunnels, one of
them the only rotating one in the industry, allow it to simulate everything
from a head-on smash into a bus stop to a 90-degree vehicle-to-vehicle impact.

    The rotating tube can even reverse and shoot a car outside, into the
rock face or the pond behind the safety centre.
    Crashes are filmed from all angles, including underneath from a
glass-topped film pit, while sensors and painted rulers on the car, block and
the dummies yield scores of measurements.
    Each year, 400 crash tests are conducted. The tests take two weeks to
set up, another two to analyse and are over in a 10th of a second.
    In what some analysts call a bid to stay on top in consumer perceptions
of auto safety, the Swedish carmaker now owned by Ford has become the first to
set a target date to
eliminate death and injury in its cars.
    The goal for Volvo is to produce a car that will be able to steer,
brake and communicate by itself from within the confines of a vast electronic
bumper.
    And if all goes according to plan, its driver and passengers will be
able to escape even the most serious crash unhurt.
    "It's a long term ambition to have zero fatalities and zero
injuries in Volvo cars. And above that we have one more thing and that is that
we want to have no accidents in the future," said Jan Ivarsson, leader of
the Volvo safety team of experts in everything from biomechanics to
behavioural science.
     Crash tests are only part of the safety puzzle. Ivarsson's team also
gathers real-world data from governments, insurance firms and, with a
crash-site unit on 24-7 call, conduct their own field investigations.
    "This is a facility that has a lot of capabilities to do the
actual crashes and collisions that we have in real life safety. And with that
as an input we can do in-depth investigations together with personnel that are
out on the field doing measurements of what is happening to the people in our
cars," Ivarsson said.
    Automakers, parts suppliers, governments and global agencies from the
United Nations to the OECD are all looking at ways to relegate to memory the
1.2 million deaths and 50 million injuries caused by motor vehicle crashes
each year.
    What makes Volvo different is it is the first to set a date. The
company calls it a goal, not a guarantee
    Ivarsson promises more innovation to come though he must keep those
ideas under wraps for now. And one day, perhaps, we may all be driving the
ultimate vehicle: the uncrashable car.
    "If we move forward a decade or two from now I think you and I at
that time won't accept situations where you get the possibility of getting
hurt or even worse killed in a car," Ivarsson said.
   Volvo was once seen as safety's apex. Besides the shoulder safety belt
invented by its then head of safety in the late 1950s, the firm also pioneered
crumple zones, side air bags and rear-facing child seats.
    Gradually, other carmakers learned safety sells and started to burnish
and brandish their own safe credentials. 
    Car industry analyst Matts Carlsson emphasised the need for Volvo to
profile itself in the area of car safety and said that was a key to its future
success.
    "Volvo has a situation where they have to profile their brand mark
and Volvo has been the safest car in the world so I think that they are really
trying to establish that brand again - That we are the safest car in the
world. Because as I said, the competitors are getting better and better,"
Carlsson said.
    The 2020 goal may help change that.
    Volvo already offers ignitions that won't operate if a driver is
intoxicated, sensors that assess alertness and sound an alarm if the driver is
dozy or drifting, GPS to prevent a rush to get somewhere on time.
    And should a crash become inevitable, the car can use its electronic
brain to minimise damage to occupants.
    In future, the wealth of radar, sonar and other sensors will allow the
extension of the car's so-called "deformation zone" until it becomes
in essence a huge electronic bumper.