Safe driving begins with good user practices. As an additional level of protection against incidents, your car can warn you if it detects a situation that requires your immediate attention or action. In addition to making the driver aware through warnings, the car can intervene by steering or braking to avoid or mitigate a collision.
Tip
What are safety interventions?
Safety interventions are responses from the car in situations in which it identifies a high or imminent risk of collision. Warnings can be provided to alert the driver to hazards so that they can take action, but the car is also capable of performing emergency steering or braking manoeuvres depending on the situation. Some types of warnings and interventions are always enabled while others are part of features that you may be able to customise or choose to turn on or off.
Safety interventions to avoid collisions
When the car identifies a risk of collision, it reacts according to the level of urgency. It can identify objects such as pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles that are approaching or are in your driving path. Many factors can affect how early and effectively the car can detect the risk of an incident. There are situations that are beyond the car's capabilities, which is why safe driving practices are essential.
If the car identifies an increasing risk of collision, alerts can quickly escalate to evasive manoeuvres by the car. If a threat appears suddenly, the car can immediately perform evasive manoeuvres.
| Collision warnings | When the car identifies that there's a risk of collision, the first step is to get the driver's attention. The car can warn you visually, with sound or with brake pulses. |
| Braking manoeuvres | If the car determines that immediate action is required, it can brake independently of the driver's actions. This can occur at the same time as a steering manoeuvre. The amount the car brakes when intervening depends on the situation. An obstacle that suddenly appears just in front of the car may cause the brakes to be fully applied, whereas another situation might require less braking to avoid a potential collision. |
| Steering manoeuvres | If the car determines that immediate action is required, it can steer independently of the driver's actions. This can occur at the same time as a braking manoeuvre. |
Messages about performed safety interventions are shown in the driver display.
Note
Overriding steering and braking interventions
- Steering interventions by the car can always be overridden with intentional steering by the driver.
- To override a braking intervention, you must firmly press down on the accelerator pedal. Past a certain threshold, you override the braking action.
Increase responsiveness during evasive manoeuvres
In certain conditions, the car can briefly increase its steering responsiveness4 if it detects that you are swerving to avoid a collision with an obstacle ahead. You may perceive this as temporarily increased responsiveness and agility. When this happens, a notification also appears in the driver display.
Knowing your car's capabilities
Safety interventions by the car can occur suddenly and catch you by surprise. They can cause discomfort despite the benefit they provide. Knowledge about your car is a good way to make safety interventions feel less unsettling when they occur. Be sure to read any notifications following an intervention to better understand why the car intervened.
Reducing the amount of interventions and warnings
The amount of safety interventions and warnings you experience depends on the driving conditions and your driving style. Certain combinations of factors might result in responses you perceive to be unnecessary or too sensitive. In general, the most effective way of reducing the amount of warnings and interventions is to drive responsibly. Adapt your speed to the driving conditions and keep a safe distance to other vehicles. You can also adjust or turn off certain features in settings.
Balancing the response need
When the car suggests, guides or performs a driving action, it is considered a response. Most driver support features have some set of possible responses. For instance, automatic braking to prevent a collision with a car that suddenly brakes in front of you is a response. Features that can provide you with warnings and safety interventions are designed to limit unnecessary responses.
Your car's responses each have their own set of conditions. These conditions can be related to the traffic situation, the state of the car and driver, and information collected using the car’s detection systems. For a response to occur, all of the required conditions need to be met and the car must have a high certainty that the response is needed. As a situation develops, the car continuously evaluates the conditions and response need. If the response need or conditions are uncertain, then the car won't respond.
If a potentially hazardous situation can be easily addressed by the driver, that is preferred over a response by the car. The car can delay or avoid providing a response in situations where you have the opportunity to address it using non-emergency manoeuvring. This helps reduce unnecessary warnings and safety interventions. Most potential hazards identified by the car are addressed by the driver through minor adjustments well ahead of the need for emergency evasive manoeuvring. In most instances, you perceive them as routine actions that are part of normal driving.
Important
Always address driving hazards
The car can and will compensate for some, but not all, instances where you are unable to or fail to respond to a driving hazard. There are situations in which an effective response is beyond the capabilities of the car, and situations in which a response is not provided because the driver is expected to address the potential hazard. When driving, you are required to stay alert and attentive so that you can respond to hazards the same way you would driving a car without driver support features.
Conditions and limitations
Warning
Never rely on safety interventions by the car to be a replacement for safe driving practices. Drive the car with the same attention to safety as required by a car without these features.
Warnings and interventions cannot be guaranteed in any situation. The car cannot handle all driving, traffic, weather and road conditions. Failure of the car to detect or respond to a hazard can happen for reasons that you may not be able to identify or predict.
- Your car's speed and movement.
- Size, shape, speed and movement of objects or road users around the car.
- Environmental conditions.
- The condition of the driving infrastructure.
- The complexity of the traffic situation.
- Sharp turns can cause detection to becomes less consistent. The car might be unable to identify hazards that appear suddenly as a result of turning sharply.
- Low traction, such as when the road is wet or icy, can reduce the effectiveness of interventions.
- Conditions and limitations affecting obstacle detection can prevent the car from accurately identifying potential hazards. Obstacle detection limitations are described in detail in the separate manual section about how surroundings and traffic is detected by the car.
- The car won't perform automatic braking interventions if you are driving forwards at or below walking pace. This is to avoid unwanted braking interventions when you are manoeuvring in tight spaces.
Important
General limitations
You have good reason to feel safe in a car capable of intervening in dangerous situations, but it's important to still do your best to drive safely and responsibly. The capabilities of the car are always limited by technological factors and constraints, the car's condition and the driving environment.
Detection capabilities
The car's ability to monitor its surroundings is used by features that can provide warnings and interventions. To better understand the limitations of such features, read the separate section about detection of traffic and surroundings. It provides an overview of how important components work, such as cameras and radars, detailing both capabilities and limitations.
Reaction times
In favourable conditions, the car can perceive and react to certain hazards, in some cases faster than a human driver can. However, this capability is not a guarantee of intervention as the car cannot detect all potential hazards that may require a response.
Availability of responses
All of the car's response types have their own set of conditions that define when they are available. This means that available responses constantly change as you drive. Certain conditions are strictly defined, such as an exact speed range, a setting being enabled or the driver wearing their seatbelt. Other conditions have more imprecise thresholds that can depend on a combination of factors. This has the effect that you cannot with certainty know if or how the car will respond in a given situation, but you can develop a sense of what responses are likely or not.
Read everything about the features you use
You are recommended to read all information about driver support features before using them. It's essential to understand both their capabilities and limitations.
Wear your seatbelt
Emergency braking interventions can occur even if the driver is not wearing their seatbelt. The risk of injury from hard braking rises significantly for unrestrained occupants. Always wear your seatbelt and make sure that any passengers also wear theirs.
Driver responsibility
Features that provide interventions and warnings are supplements to safe driving practices. They do not reduce or replace the need for the driver to stay attentive and focused on driving safely. The section covering driver responsibility is essential reading to understand the limitations of safety interventions and warnings. If you find anything unclear or have further questions, do not hesitate to contact your Volvo dealer.
