Volvo Cars unveils a unique system that can help the car driver avoid the sort of low-speed collisions that are so common in urban traffic and in slow-moving traffic queues. If the driver is about to drive into the vehicle in front and does not react in time, the car brakes itself. The system is called City Safety and it is Volvo Car Corporation’s ambition to apply the technology to prevent half of all rear-end collisions. Volvo is also showing three other smart systems that will help to avoid collisions with other vehicles and pedestrians.

Ford engineers have made a major breakthrough with the launch of an active suspension system on the new Ford Mondeo that not only provides a comfortable ride but combines this with sportiness and safety.

Volvo Cars continues to address the problem of rear-end collisions by introducing Collision Warning with Auto Brake - a refined warning system that makes the car brake by itself if the driver doesn’t act when a rear-end collision with a moving or stationary vehicle is imminent. “This can mean the difference between a serious injury and minor consequences for the occupants of both vehicles,” says Ingrid Skogsmo, Director of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre. The new system will be available in the Volvo S80, V70 and XC70 at the end of 2007.

The Volvo Cars Safety Centre has performed over two thousand crash tests since its inauguration in the year 2000. The level of activity has grown over the years and ten cars per week are now tested in the crash test laboratory - one of the leading facilities of its type in the world. The Volvo Cars Safety Centre is designed to reproduce accidents of many different kinds. The crash test laboratory is equipped with two tracks, one movable and one permanent. The movable track can be adjusted up to 90 degrees to enable tests of all kinds, from frontal to side collisions, to be carried out between cars travelling at different angles and speeds. The permanent track is long enough to enable the cars to be accelerated to speeds up to 120 km/h. A series of other tests, such as rollover accidents or collisions with animals or other objects in the surrounding environment, can also be performed.