Volvo Cars has introduced Accident Ahead Alert, a new connected safety feature. For the first time, cars can alert drivers of accidents ahead directly using real-time data from a traffic management center. It will be available in compatible Volvo cars in Europe, starting from Denmark.

With the aim to help drivers avoid collisions and traffic congestion caused by an accident ahead, the feature is designed to alert the driver instantly about a traffic accident up to a few hundred meters ahead. The location data is provided by national road authorities and compatible cars, starting with other Volvo cars.

Accident ahead alert in driver dashboard of Volvo EX40.

Volvo Cars’ connected safety technology, which was introduced in 2016, uses Volvo Cars’ cloud, based on real-time data. It allows Volvo cars to communicate with each other and alert drivers of nearby slippery road conditions and hazards. In the same way, drivers can now be alerted to accidents ahead regardless of the time of the day.

The company plans to integrate more traffic data shared by other partners in the European Data for Road Safety ecosystem, including national traffic management centers in other countries and cars from other brands.

Volvo Cars is calling for more road authorities to share anonymous traffic accident data and encourage other car makers to join in offering similar technologies.

We’re happy that Volvo Cars as the first car maker has started using our new real-time traffic event data feed. A quick alert about an accident ahead gives the driver more time to slow down and increase the distance to the car in front. This helps to lower the risk of follow-up collisions and protect the people working to clear the road.

—Stine Bendsen, head of the Danish Traffic Management Center at the Danish Road Directorate

Volvo car owners can contribute to road safety by opting for data sharing, activating it using the “connected safety” option in the car’s center display. The car will then be able to alert the driver of an accident ahead by using the hazard light alert in the dashboard, and if available, the head-up display.

Only the essential information will be shared with other cars and the data will be anonymized to ensure privacy.

The Accident Ahead Alert feature is currently available in Denmark on all 90, 60 and 40 series Volvo car models, from model year 2016 and onwards. It will be made available on the same car models in more European markets soon.