The world's first car with external airbags to ensure the safety of pedestrians was released by Swedish carmaker Volvo this week. The new Volvo V40 hatchback is now for sale in Australia.
Always highly regarded for its commitment to building safe vehicles, the carmaker responsible for inventing the modern three-point seat belt is taking the safety of their vehicles seriously on the inside and out.
The four-door hatchback V40 uses technology called the Automatic Pedestrian Detection system which can detect hazards and apply the breaks if a driver doesn't respond quickly enough to a person stepping in front of the car, Popular Science reported.
A radar system within the grill of the car detects the distance between an object in front of the car, while a camera in the rear-view window determines what the object is. The system is programmed to warn a the driver and if the driver does not react in time and the system detects an imminent crash, it breaks the car automatically, the website reported. The system can stop the car at speeds up to 21 miles per hour and can slow the vehicle down at speeds above that.
The Automatic Pedestrian Detection system will deploy an airbag on the outside of the car if it cannot prevent a crash. The airbag appears to deploy from underneath the car's raised hood, covering a majority of the front window. The pedestrian airbag system is active between speeds of 12 and 30 miles per hour, the speed at which most pedestrian collisions occur.
Before the airbag deploys, sensors on the front of the car determine if a human leg came into contact with the bumper. If deployed, the airbag raises the car's hood 10 centimeters, which allows the hood to dent and give extra space to cushion the impact.
The system sensors detecting impact with a pedestrian and opening the car's hood to hopefully soften the blow is used by carmaker Jaguar as well, the report stated.
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