Volvo will put in-car cameras in all of its cars as standard starting in the early 2020s, with driver-monitoring systems aimed at curbing distracted driving and driving under the influence.

The systems will be able to slow the car, call emergency services, and fully pull over if the driver is inattentive.

Also standard will be the Care Key, which essentially activates a programmable valet mode aimed at new, young drivers.

Back in 2007, Volvo announced its Vision 2020 plan, the goal of which was to have zero fatalities or serious injuries in Volvo cars. The company has steadily been working to achieve the Vision plan, with new safety features and assistance systems coming out every year, chief among them Volvo's Pilot Assist suite of semi-autonomous features. According to Volvo, the largest safety issue that automakers now face is that of human behavior. Going even further, it splits up behavior into three problem areas: Speeding, intoxication, and distraction. Volvo already has taken a step toward "solving" the speed problem, with the recent announcement that it will be fitting 112-mph top speed limiters to its cars. This week in Gothenburg, Sweden, at what it called the Safety Moment conference, Volvo detailed its plans to tackle the other two behavior areas, with the biggest new innovation being the addition of driver-facing cameras to the interior of its upcoming cars, something that the brand has been working on for a while.

These in-car cameras will be standard on every single Volvo starting in the early 2020s, which is when the next-gen XC90 is set to be released on the upcoming SPA2 platform. (The speed limiters will be introduced in the 2021 model year.) While no specifics on the positioning or final number of cameras has been given, the prototypes we saw had one in each A-pillar, with both augmented by an additional sensor. Malin Ekholm, vice president of Volvo's Safety Center, told C/D that her engineering team works extremely closely with Volvo's designers and said the final setup will be well integrated, extremely functional, and—as is now typical of modern Volvo cars—beautiful.

"We cannot simplify it and say 'It's none of our business, we're not a nanny, we're not a Big Brother.' Maybe you do need to be that."—Volvo CEO Håkan Samuelsson

The camera system will monitor the driver for both intoxication and distraction, with slightly different solutions for each problem. The car will be able to tell if a driver is too drowsy, drunk, or under the influence of drugs, and warn a driver not to operate the vehicle. If the person starts driving anyway, and the car detects dangerous driving like weaving in and out of a lane, the car will take additional measures to take control and stop.

CEO Håkan Samuelsson said that he wants the ability to completely prevent operation of the car if the system detects the driver is intoxicated. However, he admitted that Volvo has not yet found a way to accomplish that goal. Samuelsson thinks that Volvo has an obligation to implement systems like this, saying that "It's not just your life you're risking" when you drive a car. "We cannot simplify it and say 'It's none of our business, we're not a nanny, we're not a Big Brother.' Maybe you do need to be that." In the U.S. in 2017, almost 30 percent of all fatal accidents involved an intoxicated driver, according to NHTSA. Volvo hopes that talking about this idea will start a conversation with lawmakers and other automakers, leading to much safer roads overall.

Avoiding Accidents Altogether

When it comes to solving the distraction issue, Volvo gave some additional details. The goal is not to limit the impact of an accident, but to avoid an accident completely. In addition to the cameras monitoring a driver's eyes—where they are looking, how long they have been looking away from the road, if they are closed—the car is monitoring steering input and reaction times. The first warning for the driver comes in the form of audible and visual warnings, like a beep paired with a flashing icon in the gauge cluster. If the driver still isn't re-taking complete control, the car will slow itself down and Volvo's On Call assistance program will directly contact the driver (think a Swedish OnStar). If none of that works, and the car still detects extreme distraction and dangerous situations, it will safely pull itself over, and contact emergency services if necessary. The video below shows how the system will work:

Also starting in the 2021 model year, the orange-painted Care Key will be standard across the board. It's essentially the same thing as the currently available Red Key, which costs $220: The key activates a sort of valet mode that is particularly aimed at parents of young, new drivers. Owners will be able to use it to set limits for the top speed and audio system volume and adjust the intensity of active-safety features, among other things, then lending out the Care Key to the drivers for whom they have created the settings. Volvo says that the Care Key will lower insurance rates, and it is working with insurance companies to offer better deals to owners of new Volvos.

Volvo designs its passive- and active-safety systems so that they don't promote overreliance and misuse—both big causes of distraction—with Ekholm saying that they should be "there when you need them," fading away and working quietly in the background when you don't. He stressed that Volvo does not want you to become a worse driver because you now have all these systems at your disposal, or because you think your car will just save you from an accident or making a mistake. All of Volvo's new safety initiatives exist to achieve one goal: to "support safer driving" across the board.

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