Volvo says it plans to utilize a new test facility being built by the Swedish company Active Safety Test Area AB to develop advanced safety technologies.
The facility, dubbed AstaZero, will be located next to the auto maker’s existing proving ground in Hallered in western Sweden, with testing scheduled to begin in 2014.
Thomas Broberg, Volvo’s senior safety expert, says the car company will lease testing time from ASTA, which is owned by the Technical Research Institute of Sweden and the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg.
“This kind of safety testing has been done at several other locations, but at AstaZero everything will be located in one place and with the latest technology available,” he says.
Volvo will have staff members permanently based at the facility.
Volvo, known for its high safety standards, has set a target of zero injuries or deaths in its vehicles by 2020. Broberg says the facility will provide simulations of real-world driving conditions.
“At the new facility, both drivers and vehicles will be put to the test in a wide variety of traffic environments, including busy city roads, highways, multi-lane motorways and crossroads,” he says. “One crucial parameter is the interaction with other cars, pedestrians, cycles, trucks and buses.”
Volvo says traffic situations that will be tested include monotonous highway driving with sudden obstacles appearing in the road, inner-city traffic using dummy vehicles and humans, as well as multi-lane motorways involving other vehicles.
“It will also be possible to subject long vehicle rigs to highly demanding maneuvers, all to develop even more effective protection against rollover accidents,” Broberg says.
He declines to reveal what future safety technologies Volvo is working on or plans to test at the facility.
Some of Volvo’s most recent innovations include pedestrian detection with full auto brake, city safety, driver-alert control, cross-traffic alert and road sign information.
