Volvo introduces a pioneering preventive safety technology in 2008 called City Safety. This Volvo world-first technology was introduced as standard with the Volvo XC60 which helped reduced risk of rear-end collisions between a car and a Volvo.

Studies showed that 75 percent of all reported collisions take place at speeds of up to 30kph. In half of these cases the driver has not braked at all before the collision, mainly due to distraction. In these cases, City Safety could make a crucial difference. The Volvo City Safety System helps in completely avoiding collisions at low speed or at least substantially mitigating the consequences. City Safety works with a laser sensor in the upper portion of the windscreen. If the system establishes that there is a danger of collision when the car in front performs a sudden braking maneuver or because of a stationary vehicle, the car's own brake system swings into action. If the driver fails to respond to the danger situation, emergency braking is automatically initiated with a deceleration between 50 and 100 percent of the available brake friction force.

In 2011, the benefits of the City Safety technology were documented in another IIHS (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety) report quoting a reduction of the collision frequency by up to 22 percent. Insurance claims involving the Volvo XC60 show that City Safety reduces the cost of personal injury claims by 51 percent - while vehicle repair costs were lowered by more than 20 percent.

This system is now further upgraded to be active on speeds up to 35kph. In situations where the difference in speed between the two vehicles is 15kp or less, a collision can be completely avoided. In a potential collision situation in which the difference in speed between the vehicles is between 15-30kph, the consequences of the impending collision can be considerably reduced because the system will intervene to reduce speed before the collision occurs

Designed to give you more miles of peace of mind, the City Safety is fitted as standard in the locally available variants of the Volvo XC60, Volvo S60 and Volvo V60.