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Autonomous Vehicle Tech Developers Win Major Safety Award

Friday 9 June 2017, 10:22AM

By Impact PR

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Two traffic engineers responsible for developing safety technology used by hundreds of Kiwi drivers have been recognised with a major award for their contribution to improving traffic safety and reducing fatalities.

Per Lenhoff, senior manager, and Magdalena Lindman, technical expert in Traffic Safety Data Analysis, who work at the Volvo Cars Safety Centre, one of the most advanced testing facilities in the automotive industry, have been recognised by US based National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for their contribution to enhanced traffic safety.  

Over the years they have worked on developing a range of systems including run-off road occupant protection and both physical and CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) test methods that capture and replicate real-life crashes.

Volvo Cars’ New Zealand general manager Coby Duggan says the safety systems developed by Lenhoff and Lindman have been installed on hundreds of Volvo’s driven on New Zealand roads and says their latest advancements will be launched in NZ later this year in the new XC60 which will have one of the highest levels of standard advanced driver assistance and steering support systems on the market.

“Over the past 90 years, Volvo has been a pioneer of new technology to protect vehicle occupants while driving and now with their advances in autonomous driving technology, we are entering a new generation of safety for all road users.

“With each new model introduced by Volvo we get closer to our goal that no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo by 2020 - the technology onboard the new XC60 will be the latest step towards this objective,” he says.

Duggan says the company has been collecting data from thousands of real-world accidents since 1970 with the aim of better understanding and addressing real-life safety needs. The Safety Vision and Real-Life Safety are part of Volvo Cars’ sustainability programme – Omtanke.