Multiple automakers have targeted 2020 as the rollout year for when autonomous cars hit the road and are available on a mass scale.
Volvo is one of them. However, the auto manufacturer has targeted the same year to boast something completely different — fatality-free vehicles for every model across its entire lineup of cars and SUVs.
CNN is reporting that the auto manufacturer, already known for its top-notch safety, is vowing that no one will be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car or SUV by 2020.
"If you meet Swedish engineers, they're pretty genuine," Lex Kerssemakers, CEO of Volvo Cars North America, told CNN. "They don't say things when they don't believe in it."
Volvo intends to accomplish that lofty goal by way of bringing along driver-assist technologies, while working toward fully autonomous vehicles.
"With the development of full autonomy we are going to push the limits of automotive safety, because if you make a fully autonomous vehicle you have to think through everything that potentially can happen with a car," Volvo safety engineer Erik Coelingh told CNN.
Some of those driver-assist technologies that Volvo believes will allow it to boast a fatality-free record across its lineup are: adaptive cruise control, auto lane-keeping assist, collision avoidance, pedestrian detection and large-animal detection.
Volvo already has some of these technologies in some of its existing models, but speaking of the latter, the automaker has been testing a kangaroo detection and avoidance system in its vehicles in Australia since last year.
If there's any automaker that is going to attempt to have a casualty-free 2020 and beyond with its entire lineup, it should be Volvo.
In fact, it can already boast being deathproof, as its XC90 vehicle hasn't counted a United States death in at least four years, as reported by data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to CNN.
