The vision seems tall but achievable. Volvo Car Corporation has declared that by 2020 no one should be killed or injured in a Volvo. Its vision is to design cars that would not crash.

According to Jan Ivarsson, head of Safety Strategy at the Volvo Car Corporation, if people do not want to accept that people lose their lives in airplane accidents, then they should not regard car accidents as inevitable.

He lamented that the figure of accidents per year based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that some 1.2 million people are killed and more than 50 million are wounded in traffic accidents every year is alarming. These figures, he said, are expected to rapidly increase if no action is taken.

In this vein, he said Volvo is determined to take the lead by using its vision of a collision-free future as a guiding principle.

"Continuous research and enhancement of safety in and around our cars will be essential for achieving a safer driver environment and a collision-free future. In this aim we invite fruitful cooperation with authorities and the automotive industry," he said.

He disclosed that the Volvo Cars Traffic Accident Research Team has investigated traffic accidents since 1970, which makes its accident database to contain information about more than 36,000 accidents. He expounded that by using knowledge from real traffic situations in the research, Volvo has learned how to design cars that offer a very high level of safety in collisions.

The knowledge, he declared, would form a very important base of knowledge when identifying high-tech solutions that can help to entirely avoid or mitigate accidents. He explained that the Traffic Accident Research Team did not only studies crashed cars, it also investigates driving scenarios including driver behaviour in order to learn more about what can lead to hazardous traffic situations. "With more and more advanced technology, we design cars that help the driver avoid accidents and hopefully also avoid exposure to dangerous situations," he said.

To further address traffic incidents that might lead to accidents, he disclosed that Volvo has introduced a new strategy that includes a broader view of safety than the traditional focus on accidents.

He said that even if the technology to design a collision-free traffic environment is not in place yet, the safety experts at Volvo has said they know what they want to achieve.

One of such is for them to look into the driver's whole journey, from everyday driving to after a collision, while the car's safety functions, he said could be divided into five phases.

Phase 1, he said would focus on normal driving, where the driver would be constantly informed on driving status and driver concentration.

Phase 2 he said would focus on conflict, which would ensure that if a driver involves in a potentially hazardous situation, he would be able to cope with it.

The Phase 3 he explained would be on avoidance, where the driver might not be capable to cope with the situation.

Phase 4 of the study, he explained would be on damage reduction, which would be an analysis of a situation where the driver and the car are not capable of avoiding collision. The emphasis in this stage, he said would be on preparation for collision, and on reduction of crash forces.

The last phase, he said would be a study on after collision, where the drive is offered assistance and rescue.

He disclosed that by the time all the safety measures are put in place, the 'intelligence' of the car should be able to support the driver, for instance, by monitoring drowsiness or distraction. "It can also warn the driver when the distance to other cars is too short. It is not until the driver fails to react and a collision is imminent or unavoidable, that the car "takes over" from the driver, for example by auto-braking. The lowered impact speed leads to less crash energy, which in turn increases the performance of the car's protective safety systems such as seat belts, airbags and crumple zones," he declared.

He also announced that in the near future Volvo plans to introduce safety technologies that would make it possible for its cars to detect and auto-brake for pedestrians and even auto-steer away from oncoming cars.

With this new vision, he said Volvo Cars is challenging not only itself but also the automotive industry and governments, since a collision-free future cannot be obtained by Volvo alone.

He said that to have a safe traffic situation, the car manufacturers, the drivers and the owners of the infrastructure, which is the relevant authorities, have roles to play.

He advised that creative cooperation between road traffic authorities and other parts of the automotive industry is important in order to gain solutions that would have a big impact.

"There is considerable safety potential in creating communication between cars and infrastructure. Two cars could for example warn each other of queues or slippery roads. Infrastructure sensors could warn the driver of people or animals crossing the road.

This requires that all cars speak the same "language" regardless of car brand, so international standards are needed. The driver and passengers must understand the importance of following traffic rules and using the car's safety equipment. The three-point safety belt invented by Volvo was introduced as standard equipment nearly 50 years ago. At that time we believed it was so important to mankind that we offered the patent entirely free of charge to all manufacturers. It is still regarded as the most life-saving safety equipment in cars. Nevertheless, many people still do not use it. There is still a lot we can do to inform people about safety in cars of today," Jan Ivarsson urged.