Volvo Trucks Develops All-Around Visibility Tech That Predicts Traffic Scenarios Beforehand

That sci-fi German contraption is but a concept truck, but Volvo's latest project truck is a work-in-progress expected to see commercial introduction within 5 to 10 years' time. So what's been Volvo tinkering with?

Dubbed Non-Hit Car and Truck, this research project employs a suite of advanced active safety features. Volvo Trucks Traffic and Product Safety director Carl Johan Almqvist explains: "Our vision for traffic safety is to have no accidents involving Volvo trucks."

"This unique technology has taken us yet another step towards our vision and will hopefully save many lives in the future,” he concluded. As simply put as possible, the new technology can eliminate the risk of accidents caused by a limited field of vision thanks to a thorough 360 degree scan of everything that's near the Volvo truck, pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and all.

Non-Hit Car and Truck technology will be adopted by Volvo passenger cars by 2020

Developed jointly with Volvo's passenger car division, the Non-Hit Car and Truck can evaluate any obstacle in the truck's surroundings, then suggests actions to avoid accidents. If the driver does not respond to the suggested actions, the steering or braking system can then be activated autonomously.

To boot, this bit of tech can perform a 360 degree scan of anything near the truck every 25 milliseconds, predicting traffic scenarios up to 5 seconds ahead depending on the speed of the objects. Although the Volvo Trucks team of talented engineers have done most of the work, a lot more testing needs to be done before the system is ready for mass production.

The Non-Hit Car and Truck research project of Volvo Trucks will also trickle to the passenger car division and represents one of the final steps toward realising Volvo's vision that by 2020 no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car. Now that's a tough challenge, but fingers crossed it's doable.