Epic Fail: Volvo Crashes S60 In Botched Safety Demonstration

Since Ford no longer owns them it would be the best thing to do since it was not a ford test.

That happened over a week ago...and the photo on this page of the white S60 is a 2 year old chop and not the real car. Stay current guys...seriously.

Seriously, your duplicate stories are getting old. This has already been posted here, last week.

http://autospies.com/news/FAIL-Volvo-s-Safety-Demo-Goes-Awry-54092/

This is not a big deal...they are "testing"....Also other companies some times have the same problem. My favorite Brand MB did few years ago, when they were testing their radar and they discover that it fail on some spectfic situations that were generating ghost signals... after they solve the issues, then the system was available.

So glad they're testing now, after this system is already live in production cars.

Actually the system in teh new S60 is another version. The current one is City-Safety that only works when activated by the driver (i.e. hits a button) then the car can do stops from the 5-15mph range on it's own in traffic conditions.

This system is similar to what is available on the new E-class where it can slow you down with the radar at highway speeds and can even stop the car if no action is taken from the driver.

I don't buy into your argument. You don't have a splashy product introduction until it is ready to be sent to market. When dealing with a safety application like this we don't see "beta's" like we do in the software world.

Whelan: Good info man...

Let me get this straight: all that Volvo has going for it is that it is a safe car that people who are otherwise too afraid to drive will drive and it face plants into the back of a truck? Please, I will pay good money to MasterCard to include this in one of its "pricelsee" commercials.

Did anyone actually read the full story? An engineer setting up the demo messed up with a battery issue. Granted, it doesn't look good when your safety system appears not to be safe, but jumping to conclusions, as the folks here have, short-changes your own critical thinking skills.

Well, the story would have been less sensational had 009 included that tidbit of information, Steve.

And, I love how Steve gets deboosted for pointing that out! Reading the actual articles isn't big on this site, huh?

FYI, the original article continues:
"Acccording to Wired UK’s Nate Lanxon, it wasn’t the car that screwed up, it was the engineer preparing it. Volvo attributes the blunder to a battery problem caused by human error. And to be fair, Lanxon says, the system worked flawlessly the day before.

That doesn’t make the snafu any less ironic. Or entertaining."

Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/05/doh-volvo-crashes-during-crash-avoidance-demo/#ixzz0nq6YJKXU

It Does NOT matter, it fail, so it fail. What happen the safety system work in the video? Were probably have 100+ posts praising how Volvo is Safest vechicles blah...blah...blah....

The point is this car fail what is suppose to do. Instead of Wowing the people and spectators, it scare the $hit out of them.

I see your point. People who stuff like this conclude that Volvo is crap because of what they *see*. And what they see is all that matters to them (i.e., I know what I know, so don't bug me with facts).

Remember the Challenger disaster? Engineers said "don't launch because there is a high risk of o-ring failure with these frost conditions." Political pressure resulted in a "go" launch decision. And then Joe Q. Public concludes the shuttle blew up because of a bad design. Pure igno-rants.

Same thing with this Volvo video.

But look on the bright side: I respect your right to believe whatever you want.

I am Swedish you are Swedish we are Chinese! Ya Ya Ya
Der Volvo es Kaput! Ya!

@Steve,

I totally respect and understand your point of view. I'm NOT saying Volvo is a Unrealiable car, all I'm trying to said is that the Car in this demo fail what it suppose to do.

No Automaker are emmune to a malfunction vechicle, look at Toyota, Nissan, Honda, GM, Ford, Hummer, Kia/Hyundai and Volvo etc.

My point is that all Automakers will have cars that will malfunction given the amount of millions of millions they produce each year.

It doesn't matter WHY it failed!

Its a HUGE embarressment to invite a bunch of journalists over to see a safety demo and have the demo fail!

This ain't MythBusters. This is a several billion dollar automotive company that is best known for its safety systems perfoming worse than a demo in a high school science class.

And if anyone believes the Volvo "story" that it was caused by some engineer messing up something with a battery, you're probably also the type who is looking to buy ocean front property in Arizona.

Of course, its not going to be the fault of the technology, they're going to pin it on same unnamed sap who will take the fall. But you can be sure that they will also spend 6-months re-engineering the system just to make sure that the battery issue does not repeat.