Volvo is watching you

Friday, 22 March 2019

In George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-four, which is set in a dystopian future with ever-present surveillance, the ruling party's motto was 'War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength' and Big Brother was always watching. 

And now it seems Volvo wants to get in on that act, potentially adding 'sobriety is intoxication' and 'attention is distraction' to the mantra.

Well, not literally, but in the latest step in its relentless drive towards zero fatalities in any of its new cars, the company has revealed it will next address the issues of intoxication and distraction in a very Big Brother-y way.

The company, now owned by Chinese manufacturer Geely, announced a while back that it was limiting the top speed of all its cars to 180km/h (but not the cars from it's performance brand Polestar, because presumably speed doesn't kill in performance brands?) and says that intoxication and distraction are two other primary areas of concern for traffic safety.

**READ MORE:

* Five things you need to know about Volvo

* Five car safety features that didn't catch on

* Five European automotive brands now owned by Chinese companies**

Together, the company says, these three areas constitute the 'main 'gaps' towards Volvo Cars' vision of a future with zero traffic fatalities, and require a focus on human behaviour in the company's safety work as well.'

To this end the company will be installing as standard in all of its cars in-car cameras and other sensors that will monitor the driver and allow the car to intervene if a clearly intoxicated or distracted driver does not respond to warning signals.

Introduction of the cameras will start on the next generation of the company's scalable SPA2 vehicle platform in the early 2020s. The company says that details on the exact amount of cameras and their positioning in the interior will follow at a later stage.

'When it comes to safety, our aim is to avoid accidents altogether rather than limit the impact when an accident is imminent and unavoidable,' said Henrik Green, Senior Vice President, Research & Development at Volvo Cars. 'In this case, cameras will monitor for behaviour that may lead to serious injury or death.'

Green said that examples of such behaviour include a complete lack of steering input for extended periods of time, drivers who are detected to have their eyes closed or off the road for extended periods of time, as well as extreme weaving across lanes or excessively slow reaction times.

While not being specific on details yet, Volvo said that intervention could involve limiting the car's speed, alerting the Volvo On Call assistance service and, as a final course of action, actively slowing down and safely parking the car.

'There are many accidents that occur as a result of intoxicated drivers,' said Trent Victor, Professor of Driver Behaviour at Volvo Cars. 'Some people still believe that they can drive after having had a drink, and that this will not affect their capabilities. We want to ensure that people are not put in danger as a result of intoxication.'

Volvo says it wants to 'start a conversation about whether car makers have the right, or maybe even the obligation, to install technology in cars that changes their drivers' behaviour', which sounds very creepy and probably isn't a solid path to strong sales when put that way.

It also claims that both the speed limiter and the installation of in-car cameras illustrate how car makers can 'take active responsibility for the aim of achieving zero traffic fatalities by supporting better driver behaviour.'

Which also sounds like something Orwell might have written.

We can't help but wonder if Volvo's next step will be a message when you start the car up that says 'We know what is good for you' while slowly and ominously tightening the seatbelt…