We sit down with Mikael Ljung Aust, a scientist who works in tandem with Volvo, researching the causes of crashes. He explains that in an hour of driving, the average driver spends roughly 12 minutes with their eyes off the road, either looking at passengers, or their car’s infotainment system. This lack of attentiveness is why he and Volvo firmly believe in the idea of integrating more and more technology in order to monitor road conditions.
“A computer can’t really be inattentive – unless you programme it to be,” Aust laughs. “On the other end of the scale, you have humans who are extremely good at perceiving when something’s a little bit off – for example, someone that looks as if they may walk into the road. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will certainly help, but it’s only as smart as you make it.”
There’s always a fine line between an active safety system being helpful, or just plain annoying to the point you turn it off. Aust admits: “The real challenge is both detecting when people really need help, but [also] when people do not need it.
“People are hardwired to be extremely good at filtering noise,” he adds. “We have to be right [at least] eight times out of 10 for someone to see something as useful.”
Broberg adds that there is “no reduction in passive safety while Volvo focuses on active safety”. The firm pledged in 2014 that there would be zero fatalities in its cars by 2020. Volvo has admitted it was unable to achieve that goal, even today. But it appears its multi-faceted approach may be a path to getting that little bit closer. “Will we get there? We don’t know,” Broberg says. “But we won’t ever stop trying.”
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