Ford Has Volvo On the Block, But the Safety Hits Keep Coming

ROCKLEIGH, N.J. -- Even as Ford unloads it, Volvo keeps coming up with imaginative safety features that sooner or later others - including Ford -- will wish they had.

Somebody in the Ford universe must be kicking themselves for letting Volvo go, despite Volvo's track record for losing money. Ford recently confirmed Chinese manufacturer Geely as the preferred bidder for Volvo Cars.

After years of seemingly not knowing quite what to do with Volvo, parent company Ford has only recently become more active in adopting safety features developed by Volvo, like blind-spot detection and collision avoidance, in new models like the new-generation Ford Taurus.

Presumably, Ford has put a sharp pencil to whether it makes sense to keep footing the bill for Volvo safety research and development. Volvo's prize possession is its gold-plated safety reputation. Its small sales volume, and the in-between status of the Volvo brand -- above mass-market brands like Ford, but below high-prestige brands like Mercedes-Benz -- count against it.

The latest breakthrough from Volvo is so-called Pedestrian Detection, which will be available next year on an all-new redesign of the Volvo S60 sedan.

Pedestrian Detection uses a camera combined with radar to identify a potential collision with a pedestrian; warns the driver with a flashing and audible signal; then applies the brakes if the driver ignores the warning -- to a full stop if necessary.

In a recent demonstration at Volvo's U.S. headquarters here, the Pedestrian Detection system worked exactly as promised, although one wisenheimer member of the press was able to knock down a crash-test dummy by purposely flooring the car after the system had already intervened.

The Volvo S60 goes on sale next year. For demonstration purposes, the Pedestrian Detection system was installed in another model.

Thanks to more capable computer chips and ever-greater onboard computing power, Pedestrian Detection is the latest development in combining other safety systems that were perfected separately.

For instance, earlier generations of Volvo's Collision Avoidance Detection System alerted the driver and got the brakes ready for split-second application - but didn't actually apply the brakes - if the system detected that the closing distance to the car ahead was diminishing too rapidly. The next version applied the brakes, but not up to full braking power. The newest system stops the car completely, using full braking power if needed.

Meanwhile, auto industry vendors developed sensors for other systems, like Night Vision, that can pick pedestrians out of the background, based on the distinctive shape of a person as opposed to other objects. Not only that, sensors could "prioritize" objects in the field of view, based on relative motion that indicated whether a collision was likely - that is, constant bearing, decreasing range.

Pedestrian Detection combines some of those features and technologies.

It might not ever happen, but you wonder whether Ford will ever be in the position of writing a check to Geely for safety features developed by Volvo.