Volvo Promises 'Deathproof' Cars By 2020

AND it's made of steel not aluminum.

This isn't necessarily a safety bonus, ultimately you want some thing that is strong and ridged up until a certain point at which point would want it to crumple and lose mass in a distributed fashion in order to dissipate kinetic energy away from the vehicle. Really the only thing you don't want to come apart is the cabin area, everything else forward, aft, and under should be able to come apart easily in a crash.

Without the distributed loss of mass you end up with a lot more diffuse axonal injuries and crushed chests just through sheer force on impact since the passengers are suddenly the easiest way out for the energy of the crash..
 
Nothing bad about this claim at all. Volvo just wants to push all the current safety tech to be standard on their $50k+ SUV's.

They can lessen injury, but in order to stop you from dying they will have to implement Chinese ingenuity to make sure the strategic plastic explosives detonate around your vehicle - so that everyone outside of your seat is dead.
 
I think a Formula 1 car is very safe today in terms of surviving heavy impacts. I think even a heavy truck would have a hard time breaking its carbon fibre monocoque

Of course the cost of these carbon fibre technology is probably still impractical for commercial use but I think such death proof concept isn't that far from reality
 
Ford purchasing Volvo, Jaguar and Aston Martin was more about poaching technology for their own vehicles than running those divisions well. I suspect the strategic alliance with Mazda is for the same reasons. Jag engineers helped design the 2005 Mustang platform, Volvo did safety shell. Freestyle (now Taurus X) /500(now Taurus) is using Volvo's AWD platform. Fusion has styling cues of Aston designs. That is just what is off the top of my head from when I worked at a Ford dealership. I am sure there is far more being used in other models as well.

Was most likely the best decision they made IMO and likely helped keep them from needing bailouts like GM and Chrysler.

I suppose you are right if doing a buyout was cheaper than just buying/exchanging the designs.
 
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