The company says it has set the goal of exploiting all potentials that contribute towards significantly reducing traffic fatalities as well as the sheer number of accidents.
A lot of car companies seem to be working on driver assistance concepts that ensure additional help to the person driving the car, and reduce the chances of accidents in various scenarios. Volkswagen U.K., has shown off the Vision Zero concept, that aids towards that initiative. The concept brings piloted parking and driving to the table, giving additional support to the driver.
In a statement, the company says that “focal points of research and development at Volkswagen towards this goal are: improved perception of the vehicle surroundings and events in traffic, assisting the driver in challenging traffic situations, improving the safety of vehicle occupants and others in traffic and avoiding accidents and serious injuries.”
Vision Zero includes features like Park Assist 3, Remote control parking via the smartphone, Trailer Assist, Area View (2nd generation), Emergency Assist, Construction site assistant, Blind Spot Monitor, CAR2X safety, City Emergency Braking and the PreCrash occupant protection system.
Along with assistance systems for pedestrian detection – which initiate emergency braking if the driver does not react in time – Volkswagen is also introducing parking assistants that enable automatic parking and exiting from narrow parking spaces via smartphone. The automotive giant is also working on systems that can navigate fully automatically through road construction zones and systems that assume steering control in a medical emergency and safely brake the vehicle to a stop.
The VW Vision Zero concept aims to allow you to control your car via the smartphone, in certain scenarios.
Just yesterday, we received information about Nissan working on the Leaf driverless vehicle concept (Read about it here), which also includes a host of laser tracking systems and sensors to assist in similar features that aim to reduce road accidents and fatalities.