Every Volvo model now comes with a 180 km/h speed limit and Care Key
21 May 2020
Every new Volvo car now comes with a limited top speed of 180 km/h (112 mph), as Volvo Cars delivers on its promise made last year to introduce such a limitation and goes beyond regulation and legislation to help close the remaining gap to zero serious injuries and fatalities in traffic.
Apart from the speed cap, every Volvo car will now also come with a Care Key, which allows Volvo drivers to set additional limitations on the car’s top speed, for example before lending their car to other family members or to younger and inexperienced drivers.
Volvo Cars introduces Care Key as standard on all cars for safe car sharing.
Together, the 180 km/h speed limitation and Care Key send a strong signal about the dangers of speeding, underlining Volvo Cars position as a worldwide leader in safety. Both features illustrate how car makers can take active responsibility for striving to achieve zero traffic fatalities by supporting better driver behavior.
We believe that a car maker has a responsibility to help improve traffic safety. Our speed limiting technology, and the dialogue that it initiated, fits that thinking. The speed cap and Care Key help people reflect and realise that speeding is dangerous, while also providing extra peace of mind and supporting better driver behavior.
—Malin Ekholm, head of the Volvo Cars Safety Center
The top speed limit has proven to be controversial since it was announced, with some observers questioning the rights of car makers to impose such limitations through available technology.
Volvo Cars says it believes it has an obligation to continue its tradition of being a pioneer in the discussion around the rights and obligations of car makers to take action that can ultimately save lives, even if this means losing potential customers.
Above certain speeds, in-car safety technology and smart infrastructure design are no longer enough to avoid severe injuries and fatalities in the event of an accident. This is why speed limits are in place in most western countries, yet speeding remains ubiquitous and one of the most common reasons for fatalities in traffic. Millions of people still get speeding tickets every year.
Research shows that on average, people have poor understanding of the dangers around speeding. As a result, many people often drive too fast and have poor speed adaption in relation to the traffic situation.
Apart from speeding, intoxication and distraction are two other primary areas of concern for traffic safety and that constitue the remaining gap towards Volvo Cars’ vision of a future with zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries. It is taking action to address all three elements of human behavior in its safety work, with more features to be introduced in future cars.
If you really cared about speed, you would set a speed limit of 130 or 140 kph.
Maybe this is the ultimate plan, because I would not expect to save many lives with a 180 kph speed limit.
What you really need is a geofenced speed limit system which limits you to say 10 kph above the local speed limit, with perhaps another 10 or 20 kph for 30 seconds at a time (for overtaking, racing to make the lights etc).
It sounds very nannyish but there are so many speed cameras around now, you are better off with this feature.
If you live in Montana and want to drive as fast as you like (or Frankfurt), don't buy a Volvo.
Posted by: mahonj | 21 May 2020 at 02:05 AM
I think this is just preparing the field for EVs. If you have EV it's somewhat hard to make it go faster than 180 kmh, so why bother since every Volvo is already limited to 180 kmh ;)
Posted by: GasperG | 21 May 2020 at 04:49 AM
I've been chased by carjackers and successfully outran them. Minutes later they killed a woman nearby during a cajacking and were arrested as the train trapped them. In any case, I'll never have a personal vehicle that can't get away from those with evil intentions. My wife was hassled on the highway by road ragers, same thing. Her truck has a 5 Star tune that deletes the speed limiter and that probably saved her life.
Such thinking by Volvo is not smart. When you need it, you need it.
Posted by: cujet | 21 May 2020 at 06:31 AM
Many Tesla models are limited to 155 mph (250 kph.) and the upcoming Roadster will do 250+ MPH (402 kph.) and many other makes of EVs also do that, so I don't know WHAT your are saying GasperG.
Posted by: Paroway | 21 May 2020 at 01:46 PM
What am I saying? It's all about cost, making "normal" power EV go faster than 180 kph just means more cost or maybe even know-how, why bother when you already limited the whole range of models including ICE to 180 kph.
Official Volvo argument is safety, but I think it's not the only reason :)
Posted by: GasperG | 21 May 2020 at 11:58 PM
EVs are power strong and energy weak. They can put out a load of power, but not for very long. The energy required to move a car is proportional to the cube of the speed, thus your range will be greatly reduced if you speed like a maniac.
Thus it is logical to speed limit EVs.
You can refuel a petrol or diesel car in about 5 minutes, which is not the case with an EV.
So it makes sense to limit the max speed, but allow a burst of power to establish your manhood when pulling away from the lights (or a band of carjackers).
Posted by: mahonj | 22 May 2020 at 04:32 AM
"I've been chased by carjackers and successfully outran them. Minutes later they killed a woman nearby during a cajacking and were arrested as the train trapped them. In any case, I'll never have a personal vehicle that can't get away from those with evil intentions. My wife was hassled on the highway by road ragers, same thing. Her truck has a 5 Star tune that deletes the speed limiter and that probably saved her life.
Such thinking by Volvo is not smart. When you need it, you need it."
Where are you and your wife to be so unlucky? Seriously I'm not sure the speed is needed for get away purposes in most countries. Driving over 112mph on most roads in most countries is pretty dangerous. Also even 20 years ago most cars could not manage speeds of 112mph. So are we just going to say car jackers might have a bugatti vehyron so my next car needs to go 300mph to out run them. It seems a needless race to the death.
Anyway I am presuming South Africa or Brazil, but I doubt you can do 112mph on many road in either country. Certainly if you tried it in the UK you would not get very far at that speed without being pulled over by the police. Anything over 100mph is automatic loss of driving licence and anything over 95mph is automatic court appearance with possibility of jail time. But then there are not many car jackings in the UK, and car jackings with a murder are probably a once a decade event.
Posted by: Am0283 | 25 May 2020 at 01:27 AM