Hasta La Ideas

WOW. Volvo has developed a new automated emergency braking system for their recently-rolled-out FH trucks, which you have to take a look at in this quick video—and if it doesn’t seem impressive from the external camera shots, wait ’til you see the view from the driver’s seat:

Crazy, no? You can see the guy is doing 60 k.p.h., not quite highway speeds, but still a decent clip—and the truck is laden with a 40-ton load! As he comes up on the car I got that oh shit stomach-clench and thought for sure he’d pancake it, even though I knew I was just watching the same footage from a different angle.

So how does it work, and what steps did Volvo engineers take to prevent the car behind you from slamming into you? Here’s an animation:

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