Volvo is a Swedish company that is one of the pioneers in bringing safety into the realm of car industry. Back in 1944, Volvo introduced the safety cage for the cars. Volvo had recently developed a system to avoid the accidents using face recognition. Now, Volvo has another rabbit under its cap as it has developed a cloud-based communication system for cars. The aim is again the same i.e. safety. The best thing this system possesses is its flexibility and adaptability with every car. The system is named as “Cloud-Based Infotainment System”
A test drive was done with 50 vehicles on the roads of Sweden. Every car is able to communicate real time information about the road’s condition with one another as well as with the road administrator. This great venture came into being with the collaboration of Tafikverket (Swedish Transport Administration), Volvo and Staten Vegvesen (Norwegian Public Roads Administration). The real time communication data makes the journey more safe and comfortable.
As a car comes across some slippery or icy situation, it sends a road friction detection message to the database. This message is transmitted using the smartphone. The Volvo’s database immediately responds to this warning message by transmitting a message to the nearby vehicles. In this way, the drivers get alert and prepares them to take some prior action. Meanwhile a message is sent to the road maintenance administration which clears the situation to avoid any serious situation.
According to Erik Israelsson, the project leader at Volvo, now a big amount of data is available to road administrator from many different cars. This data can then be used to ensure the better safety of the cars and proper maintenance of roads.
Volvo has assured the confidentiality of the cars by not sharing any solicited information with the road administration authorities. Volvo has stated that the information is solely used for the safety purposes. The company hopes to make this technology available for general public within next few years.
Without any doubt, it is clear that such technologies in future can serve the masses, so other companies like Mercedes, GM, BMW and Toyota have also started working on these type of applications. We hope that such technologies are available as soon as possible.