Sweden is a beautiful, amazing country -- between 2 and 4 p.m. on July 2. Otherwise, it's dark, cold, wet and deeply forlorn, a place of Norse hardship-as-honor, like the landscape of some old Led Zeppelin song.
Compared with the swelling, unrestrained fertility of, say, Missouri (where if you bury your dead cat in the backyard, by spring kittens will sprout), life in Sweden comes hard. It must be nurtured and protected. I believe that if you analyze Swedish carmaker Volvo's mothering, mad-with-safety corporate ethos, you would arrive at this bit of cultural anthropology. It's either that or socialism.
Recently the company announced a new goal: By 2020, its cars would be so safe that no one would die behind the wheel of a Volvo. This is a laudable ambition even as it is complete lunacy.
Really, Volvo, no one? We live in a world where people somehow manage to get their heads caught in their electric windows and drive into very large and prominent things, such as oceans.
The Norwegians. Sheesh. What are you going to do?
The Obama administration went all Swedish on us this week when it announced dramatically higher fuel economy standards to come into force in the next decade. These higher standards will mean a radical redefinition of safety, and Volvo's technology push is hitting the moment just right.
The new XC60 compact SUV includes the company's first generation of active collision prevention systems, called City Safety.
City Safety uses a laser-radar system to sweep the road ahead, scanning for stationary objects. At speeds under 20 mph, if the system senses that the driver is about to hit an object, it will engage the brakes up to 50% of maximum braking force.
At speeds under 10 mph -- assuming the driver makes no effort to avoid the collision -- the XC60 will stop short of impact. At speeds of 10 to 19 mph, the impact may still occur but the force will be greatly diminished.
Now, unless you happen to be picking your teeth with a loaded revolver, such accidents are not life-threatening. Even so, according to Volvo, these pitiful fender-benders account for 75% of all vehicle collisions, and they are certainly among the most miserable of insurance claims, simply because so high a percentage of the repair cost is the out-of-pocket deductible.
I should also note that much of the high-strength boron steel used in a Volvo can't be just bent back into shape by a repair shop; the pieces have to be cut out and thrown away. That's one reason a 15-mph front crash can run over $10,000 to repair.
