The danger of social media is that some people take everything they see there as gospel. For example, this video that’s been circulating recently, showing an apparent tragic failure of the famed Volvo Pedestrian Detection System. Well guess what? The car wasn’t even equipped with that feature!
Here’s the official statement from Volvo:
We’ve been recently made aware that there’s a video with the title “Volvo’s auto brake system fails at launching ceremony… MD paralysed” circulating (again) on social media and messaging apps.
We would like to reiterate that in the depicted incident the XC60 was equipped with City Safety, however, it did not have the Pedestrian Detection functionality – this is sold as a separate package and would have been needed to mitigate or avoid the car colliding with the two men.
Even if the car was equipped with this feature, the heavy acceleration of the driver could have caused the system to be overridden and deactivated; our auto-braking (mitigation and avoidance) technology is highly advanced and in cases which the car detects that the driver intends to perform the action deliberately, it will deactivate itself.
Contrary to the title of the video, both men were alright and none of them were paralyzed nor were they a Managing Director of Volvo Cars. Volvo Car Malaysia strongly recommends its dealers, partners and customers to never perform test towards real humans.
City Safety has been acknowledged to contribute to safer driving in heavy city traffic by avoiding or mitigating rear end collisions with other vehicles in low speeds by braking. The system is active in speeds up to 50 km/h.
– ENDS –
So folks, don’t go believing everything you see on social media, do a bit of fact-checking first. Always remember this famous quote:
“The problem with news and quotes on social-media and the internet in general, is that you never know if they’re factual or simply made up” – Abraham Lincoln.
Video Source: Victor Cruz Cid @ YouTube
Statement: Volvo Car Malaysia
Screengrab: YouTube
