Early in 2013, Volvo announced a few projects they were working on in an effort to reduce the frequency of car-pedestrian/cyclist accidents. The company even took it a step further with a hood mounted airbag system developed not for the driver, but for the poor soul who may find their way to the hood of your car. While we wish more attentive drivers would make all this technology unnecessary, it was nice to see a car company thinking about people both in and outside of the car.
It seems POC feels the same way and has recently established a partnership with Volvo in order to work together to make the roads even safer. POC has always been about safety as much as they are about style as we saw at the AVIP launch in Aspen. One of the first projects for the duo is centered around communication – that between a bicyclist and a car, which falls in line with POC’s Interaction part of the AVIP equation. We’ll have to wait until the second part of 2014 to see what the two have cooked up, but we’re guessing it will probably be safe. And Hi Viz orange. Just a guess.
More after the break.
From POC:
POC and Volvo Car Group have established an exclusive partnership. The two Swedish companies will exchange knowledge and experience in order to explore new ideas within safety and design.
“With POC’s mission of doing the best we can to possibly save lives and reduce the consequences of accidents for gravity sports athletes and cyclists, it’s a treasure to interact on cycling safety together with Volvo Cars. They have the vision, competence and experience and have been leading the development within road safety for more than 80 years,” says Stefan Ytterborn, POC CEO and founder.
The new partnership will explore and utilize possibilities to extend the safety knowledge and product offer for Volvo Cars as well as for POC. An initial research and development project is focusing on communication between cars and cyclists.
“Communication with cyclists around the car is a possible extension of our groundbreaking Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection technology. Providing the cyclist with a confirmation that he or she is seen by the vehicle can make interaction between cars and cyclists smoother and safer in urban areas,” says Jan Ivarsson, Senior Manager, Safety Strategy and Requirements at Volvo Car Group.
POC is just about to release AVIP, it’s first road bike specific range including helmets, apparel, eyewear and accessories. AVIP stands for Attention, Visibility, Interaction and Protection and is POC’s most ambitious initiative to date, promoting safety for road cyclists.
“The partnership with POC will be inspiring and fruitful. Both of our companies have a strong emphasis on safety and protection. POC can inspire us to make safety an emotional experience and to create even more desirable cars”, says Thomas Ingenlath, Senior Vice President Design of Volvo Car Group. “POC’s products blend functional design with lightweight, high performance materials that offer the ultimate sense of freedom and protection when things really get rough. This is perfectly in tune with our aim to make functionality and safety an emotional experience,”
The first results of the partnership will be presented in the second half of 2014.
