Automobile drivers and cyclists have always struggled to share the road, but Volvo’s new wearable tech hopes to make the streets safer for everyone.
In collaboration with sports gear manufacturer POC and telecom company Ericsson, the Swedish automaker will debut a connected car and helmet prototype next month that will allow Volvo drivers to communicate with cyclists directly.
Using GPS tracking applications, the helmet will establish two-way connection between Volvo drivers and bicycle riders, calculating the position of both, and sending alerts when a collision is predicted.
The motorist will be notified via Volvo’s in-car display, while the cyclist is alerted with a helmet-mounted light.
“The partnership between Volvo Cars, POC and Ericsson is an important milestone in investigating the next steps towards Volvo Car’s vision to build cars that will not crash,” said Klas Bendrik, Chief Information Officer at Volvo Cars. “Today our City Safety system, a standard in the all-new XC90, can detect, warn and auto-brake to avoid collisions with cyclists. By exploring cloud-based safety systems, we are now getting ever closer to eliminating the remaining blind spots between cars and cyclists and by that avoid collisions.”
“Our work with Volvo Cars to explore the connected society, protecting the millions of cyclists on the road is just the latest example of innovation that can change the world,” added Per Borgklint, Head of Business Unit Support Solutions at Ericsson.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly 50,000 cyclists are killed or injured in the U.S. each year.
The cloud-based safety system will debut at International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which runs from January 6th to January 9th, 2015.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.