”Our founders said: “Cars are driven by people – the guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo, therefore, is and must remain safety.” Those values have never changed, and in 2008 we set out our vision – that by 2020 nobody should be seriously injured or killed in a new Volvo car.”
They probably won’t reach this, but they worked hard towards it. For example:
In that case, be sure to buy a sedan, it's more dangerous to hit a pedestrian with a truck or SUV due to their higher ground clearance and taller fronts.
Maybe the http://www.arielatom.com/ ? Excellent visibility and low to the ground so you won't hit any vital parts in the event of a collision. Plus most people will probably notice you... ;-)
Honestly a gen1 prius is the ideal shape. It's small and the car is one big bulbous wedge. Pedestrians hit the car at the legs, topple over the hood, and roll off.
SUVs and trucks have a huge front end that can rip people in half or slam them under the car rather than have them roll up and off. I saw an SUV hit a deer and the poor thing exploded like a grenade.
You, the driver, have much much more control over pedestrian safety than any tool. Tech is not silver bullet, it fails (rta). If you believe the tech will "protect you", do you job for you, that is dangerous. Get skilled first, augment those skills with tech second.
That's a naive approach. Sure - technology shouldn't replace safe driving, but it sure does help a lot. It was amazing when the collision avoidance system kicked in on my Volvo V60 and did an emergency breaking, stopping in time when some kids snow sled into traffic. I think could have been able to stop in time, but that would have been a much closer call.
