Volvo Cars Partners With POC To Develop Safer Helmets For Cyclists

Volvo Cars are one of the pioneers in the development of safer modern cars and the Swedish carmaker is now coming up with something innovative to take the safety quotient one step ahead. Volvo is partnering with POC for a series of world's first crash test of bike helmets against cars in a bid to protect cyclists in case of a collision. Accidents between cars and cyclists often result in severe injuries and even death of the rider. Cyclist detection with full auto brake uses cameras and radars to detect cyclists, warn the driver of an imminent collision and apply the brakes as a precautionary measure.

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The Volvo-POC research project consists of a number of specially designed crash tests at the Volvo Cars safety research facilities in Gothenburg, Sweden and is part of a wider research project to understand the types of long-term injuries sustained by cyclists. Speaking about the new project, Malin Ekholm, head of the Volvo Cars Safety Centre said, "This project with POC is a good example of our pioneering spirit in safety. We often develop new testing methods for challenging traffic scenarios. Our aim is not only to meet legal requirements or pass rating tests. Instead, we go beyond ratings, using real traffic situations to develop technology that further improves safety."

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Volvo cars also use the auto brake system with help of cameras and radars to detect cyclists, warn the driver of an imminent collision and apply the brakes as a precautionary measure.

The tests are based on existing regulatory test procedures for pedestrian head protection. During these tests, POC bike helmets are worn by crash dummy heads mounted on a testing rig, from where they are launched towards different areas of the hood of a static Volvo car, at different speeds and angles for various measurements. The learnings from the research project will help POC make its helmets safer and more protective in the event of a car-bike accident, while the tests will also provide valuable insights and learnings for Volvo Cars into these types of accidents for future development.