Volvo To Use New Test Facility

By Logan Utsman on Saturday, June 2nd, 2012

Located in western Sweden at Volvo Car Corporation’s Hällered proving ground is the start of an all-new testing facility that will be the birth place of many future safety systems. Operated by Active Safety Test Area AB (ASTA), the testing grounds will offer users the ability to evaluate a new system in the best way possible. Being one of those users, Volvo will be given the opportunity to put their active safety systems to the test on simulated real-world situations so that all types of possibilities can be witnessed.

“With the new facility we will have access to an excellent tool for the development of tomorrow’s intelligent safety and driver support systems,” said Peter Mertens, Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Volvo Car Corporation. Owned by the Technical Research Institute of Sweden and the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, ASTA will be the main overseeing outfit of the facility. Available to Volvo will be testing situations such as “busy city roads, highways, multi-lane motorways and crossroads”. With so many variables to encounter, each new active safety system will be able to interact with actual, real-world parameters before they land on a production Volvo. One situation in particular will be suddenly interrupted “monotonous” highway driving.

“Volvo Car Corporation is the automotive industry’s leader in safety and our engineers are now developing next-generation technologies as another step toward our vision that nobody should suffer fatal or serious injuries in a new Volvo car by the year 2020,” said Mertens. Production of the facility is currently underway and its full operation is scheduled for 2014.

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