It might not be sexy, but Volvo is proud of its safety record

Industry

Published: 27 Oct. 2020, 19:41

It might not be sexy, but Volvo is proud of its safety record

Volvo Cars Korea's rear-facing child seat. [VOLVO CARS KOREA]

In late July, TV presenter Park Ji-yoon and her family of four were involved in a car accident where their vehicle collided head-on with a 2.5-ton truck. All four members of the family walked away from the crash with only minor injuries.

The accident attracted unexpected publicity for Park’s vehicle — a Volvo XC90.

Among local customers, the Swedish automaker is well known for its sturdiness. While sturdiness may not be the most exciting adjective to describe a car, the implied safety appeals to drivers navigating Seoul's busy roads.

Volvo Cars Korea has leant into this image. Last month it launched the Moment 3 campaign to introduce all the technology that goes into keeping Volvo cars — and their drivers — safe on the road. The marketing and PR campaign is part of a global initiative to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of Volvo’s Traffic Accident Research Team.

“We launched a big section on our official website this month to present the history of our safety technology, the systems we developed in the past for that purpose and some of the traffic accident data collected by our research team — all in one place so that our customers can see what we’re up to in this area,” said a Volvo Cars Korea spokesman.

The first of the three key themes under the Moment 3 campaign is family safety.

Volvo’s family-targeted sports utility vehicles (SUV) like the XC60 and XC90 are equipped with a suite of high-tech safety features, including a Pilot Assist feature that maintains the distance with the car in front and ensures the vehicle stays in the center of the road.

The XC90 SUV also comes with a special car seat that can be attached for kids.

Keeping children in the back of the car safe has long been an area of research for the Swedish automaker.

It was the first company to release a rear-facing child seat in 1978, better protecting a child both during accidents and while driving.

Volvo recommends using rear-facing seats for children under four years old in order to minimize the movement of their head and neck while traveling.

The car seat was inspired by NASA astronaut John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. Watching the scene being aired live, an engineering professor in Gothenburg, Sweden, noticed that Glenn was traveling backwards on a tilted seat and came up with the idea of mimicking the design in cars.

As part of the Moment 3 campaign, Volvo put together the history of its rear-facing seats, how it contributes to lowering fatalities of young children in car accidents in Sweden and uses test dummies to demonstrate why it is safer compared to other child seats — all in one video.

For the rest of the safety campaign, Volvo plans to share informative, multimedia content under the themes “Million More,” focusing on its accident research team; and “City Safety,” introducing technology to ensure that Volvo vehicles safely run on city roads alongside passengers and bikes.

BY SONG KYOUNG-SON [song.kyoungson@joongang.co.kr]