Volvo Self-Park System Runs Over Pedestrian

A new video has gone viral the past weeks showing what appears to be a major fail from Volvo’s self-park system, but as it seems neither the car nor the technology was at fault. Instead it was, as with pretty much any accident, most likely the fault of the driver.

The video, taken in the Dominican Republic, shows a Volvo XC60 reversing itself, waiting a little, and then driving back into pedestrians at speed. The incident was first thought to be from a malfunction with the car but as it turns out the car might not even have had the ability to recognise a human at all.

While the car does have an auto-braking feature as standard, that only applies for avoiding other cars. The pedestrian detection functionality is an add-on that has to be purchased extra.

“It appears as if the car in this video is not equipped with Pedestrian detection,” said Johan Larsson, Volvo spokesperson. “This is sold as a separate package.”

The pedestrian safety feature uses a radar and a camera to detect pedestrians. Added hardware means extra costs for those who want it, fair enough. But seems the owner of this XC60 didn’t know that.

The images in the video can be somewhat disturbing as you see reporters getting run down. The blog posting the footage has however released a statement that the two men that were hit by the car are bruised but okay.

Lessons of the day, know the technology you use and don’t stand in front of a moving car – no matter what kind of technology it has.

Thank you The Independent for proving us with this information