Volvo Car will introduce Driver Alert Control, a world first in passenger cars that seeks to alert the driver to lapses in concentration, along with its Lane Departure Warning system from October 2008 as part of its MY09 model line-up.
Volvo’s Driver Alert Control and Lane Departure Warning system, which alerts the driver if the vehicle unintentionally moves outside lane markings, will be available in the Volvo S80, V70, XC70 and XC60 when it is launched next year.
As a result of extensive studies on how drivers operate behind the wheel, Volvo have developed Driver Alert Control which tracks vehicular movement between lane markings and alerts inattentive drivers when required. DAC, which is active above 65 km/h, is primarily intended for situations wherein the risk of losing concentration is the greatest and an accident would have severe consequences. The system monitors the car’s movements and assesses whether the vehicle is being driven in a controlled manner using a Volvo-specific algorithm.
DAC consists of a camera, a number of sensors and a control unit. The camera, which is installed between the windscreen and the interior rear-view mirror, continuously measures the distance between the car and the road lane markings.
The sensors register the car’s movements, while the control unit stores the information and calculates whether the driver risks losing control of the vehicle.
If the risk is assessed as high, the driver is alerted via an audible signal. In addition, a text message appears in the car’s information display, alerting him or her with a coffee cup symbol and a message to ‘take a break’.