Volvo Trucks' latest safety technologies, Volvo Enhanced Cruise with Active Braking and a Lane Departure/Driver Alertness Warning System, increase driver safety through advanced sensor technologies that monitor road conditions and driver behavior.

Volvo Enhanced Cruise with Active Braking offers full-time active braking and will be offered on all new Volvo VN series highway tractors ordered with VEC. Until now, trucks equipped with VEC provided active braking only when the vehicle's cruise system was engaged.

VEC with Active Braking uses a radar sensor, inset behind the front bumper, to help maintain a safe following distance from slowing vehicles and identifies stationary objects in the truck's path. The system provides full-time object detection and integrated visual feedback on the instrument panel and driver information display, audible warnings and braking intervention to help reduce the potential or severity of a crash. If braking intervention becomes necessary, the system will reduce the engine throttle, apply the engine brake, and when needed, apply up to two-thirds the brake power.

The Lane Departure/Driver Alertness Warning System provides audible and visual alerts during unintentional deviation from the driving lane or drowsy driver characteristics. The system combines a windshield-mounted camera, vision software, processor and power supply into a unit that's integrated with the warning hierarchy established on all Volvo vehicles.

"The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration attributes human error as the cause of more than 90% of all truck-involved crashes," says Frank Bio, Volvo Trucks product manager - trucks, citing FMCSA's Large Truck Crash Causation Study. "Active safety technologies that provide driver warnings and take corrective action play a vital role in helping to avoid accidents, while continuing to help drive the strong downward trend in truck-involved crash rates."