“Cars are driven by people. The guiding principle behind everything we make at Volvo, therefore, is, and must remain, safety.” This sentiment was originally attributed to the Swedish automaker’s co-founders, Assar Gabrielsson and Gustaf Larsson, and has essentially remained one of Volvo’s primary core values for nearly a century.
As a result of their shared vision, the Volvo production line started rolling in April 1927.
Play a word-association game with ten randomly selected people on the street and say “Volvo.” I guarantee that a majority of those familiar with the brand will respond “safety” (while a minority might answer “boxy but good” –a reference to Dudley Moore’s ad campaign proposal in the 1990 movie “Crazy People”.)
Source: www.pastposters.com
A couple of years into my Volvo career, I was asked to participate in a project intended to present a variety of potential next-generation safety features, all wrapped up in a late-model Volvo 244 (in non-descript beige, of course). Since we were, for all practical purposes, tinkering with Gothenburg’s raison d’etre, I assume that the project was either quietly approved by our Swedish execs across the ocean or that we proceeded under the assumption that rather than asking for permission, we would instead beg for forgiveness after the project had been made public. Such discussions, if held at all, were far above my pay grade, so I proceeded to integrate a number of then-advanced safety features into the car. Some of these were existing Volvo accessories, while others were genuinely new ideas, which required a bit of tweaking to properly “adapt” to the vehicle.
Among the “safety gadgets”, as AutoWeek referred to them, were a seatbelt reminder system, an outside-temperature freeze warning, a low tire-pressure warning (to go along with the run-flat tire inserts we added), a rear window wiper/washer, a speed-sensitive horn, and variable brake lights whose flash rate was linked to the Volvo’s rate of deceleration. A programmable, fuel-fired cabin heater might have been one of the more questionable adds, seen from today’s perspective. Younger passengers weren’t ignored, either, as Volvo’s Europe-only accessory child seat was also installed.
A rendering of the VSCC at midnight. Fortunately, the massive lower body-side moldings didn’t make the final cut.
Of course, the Volvo’s exterior was subjected to a few visible modifications as well, the most noticeable of which were broad swaths of reflective “glow in the dark” material along the sedan’s bodysides. Additional bumper guards and headlamp washers were also fitted, and two auxiliary lamps were mounted under the front bumper, one fog-lamp and one driving lamp (another single fog-lamp was added to the driver’s side tail-lamp array). Lastly, so-called “notice lights”, a precursor to today’s DRLs, were wired into the car’s electrical system.
The VSCC made page one of AutoWeek’s issue for the week ending April 7th, 1978.
Several of the VSCC’s features described here made it into production decades later.
The Volvo Safety Concept car made its public debut at New York’s Auto Expo in April 1978, meriting front-page coverage in AutoWeek as well as a couple of NYC-area TV news features, then disappearing into concept-car obscurity not long thereafter. Nevertheless, it’s instructive to compare the VSCC’s safety-feature laundry list with the extensive suite of “advanced driver assistance systems” (ADAS) offered in today’s new-car showrooms.
At April 1978’s New York Auto Expo, in all its glory.
Perhaps the VSCC was just a few decades ahead of its time after all…
The reflective decals are an interesting idea. I remember a big push on visibility in the 1970s, which resulted in local fire engines being delivered in a kind of screaming chartreuse paint. It was said to be far more visible than the traditional “fire engine red” we were used to. I wonder what happened, because after awhile fire engines all became fire engine red again. Anyway, I find it interesting that stripe graphics were sold only on sport and never on safety.
Our police cars and fire trucks have fluro graphics for visibility.
One thing not mentioned that did make production was the square-headlight face that would see production for 1981. I had to look that up because something looked “off” about the side view – it has the production 1978 and older rear without the wraparound taillights implemented for ’79 with the ’81-up grille and headlights.
US spec. 260s got the square headlight assembly from MY ’78 on, if I’m not wrong.
Variable brake lights are a different idea but not clever, not when turn signals can also be red, that didnt make it, My car during a hard stop fires the hazard lights, and with the rear axle braking leading the brake effort it just stops, nobody else seems to set brakes up that way but it works great, actually air brake coding for towing heavy trailers also works that way for safety reasons,
Another interesting article Stephen offering rare insights into these cars.
I’m fascinated by the discussion of the speed sensitive brake lighting, the speed sensitive horn, and also the tire pressure sensing. All three of those things in a current car would be accomplished by reading data coming from wheel speed sensors…something of course necessary for modern ABS systems. But as far as I know, there were no provisions for wheel speed sensing on any Volvo of the time (ABS was still a little way off). So, was wheel speed sensing on the VSCC developed specifically to serve these safety features? And if so, the ‘microcomputer” (mentioned in the article you pictured), sounds like a pretty important development as it was actually processing data that could eventually be used for so much more than something like a “speed sensitive horn”. That horn, I’d imagine was pretty useless and could probably be more trouble than it’s worth. It’s certainly not a feature that’s commonly made it into today’s cars.
The article mentions that the car had airbags. Now THAT would be a useful safety feature, and obviously one that has stuck with us. I’d imagine though that those must have been a bear to engineer…and definitely a notch higher in difficulty to effectively implement than reflective stripes or a speed-sensitive horn.
What exactly was the seatbelt warning system? My car (1976) has a seatbelt warning light. Like many electrical systems in the car, that was broken when I got it…and I never bothered to fix it. I would assume a light and a buzzer are involved. Was your system on the VSCC more of an interlock?
The auxiliary heat makes me smile. To think that adding that (fuel fired no less!) would constitute a “safety feature” … when in fact it’s the broken heater control valve in my 1976 Volvo that constitutes my biggest complaint about the car (and is the biggest downside for summer driving). The car blasts heat 365 days a year. Lovely in the winter. Not so much in August. Every summer I vow to fix it, then as Summer turns into Fall the urgency decreases.
Anyway, now I know…it’s a feature, not a bug. 🙂
Jeff,
Thanks for your comments. I don’t recall how the speed-sensitive functions were accomplished. We did have a local specialty electronics fab shop work on some of these systems. The seatbelt warning was another Euro-only item. It simultaneously flashed the warning light and emitted a ticking sound for a specific time after the ignition was activated.
We had a dedicated guy from Flygmotor (Volvo’s aircraft-engine business) stationed in Rockleigh for several years. He was tasked with finding U.S. customers for those “parking heaters”, as we called them. A tough assignment, indeed!
The local electronics shop could basically have rigged something up with a couple of magnets, much like the old-school cycling computer I have on my bike. Although I’d guess that the actual computer part might be a bit larger than the postage-stamp-sized thing I have on the bike. And of course the horn function could have been read off of the transmission/speedometer head.
Funny thing about those fuel-fired cabin heaters…they’ve made something of a comeback nowadays for the van life crowd. I know several folks who’ve installed them in vans they intend to live in and supposedly they work quite well.
My grandparents’ ’76 264GL (being NZ-new it would probably have been UK-spec) had a factory seatbelt interlock for the driver’s seat. If the seatbelt wasn’t done up, a buzzer (or similar) went off and the car wouldn’t start. It drove the dealer mad at servicing time, and was eventually disabled.
Volvo had all this safety technology back in 1978 (maybe not in production but at least proven) and here we are in 2024. The US still doesn’t legally mandate Daytime Running Lights. Based on my experience living in a dense city I absolutely swear by them even if it may only provide a split second advance notice during daylight. It’s the during the dusk period when many drivers have not turned on their headlights that they help tremendously.
My 08 Volvo C30 had a temp gauge right in the instrument cluster that displayed a snowflake at 32 degrees fahrenheit that was so stupidly simple yet most helpful. The C30 was also my first car with TPMS (first gen that didn’t indicate each individual tire pressure) but not a big deal. My only beef with TPMS was they did not sell sensors with rubber valve stems for those of us in very cold climates. Frustratingly I learned the hard way how easy it is to break off an aluminium stem when it’s 20 degrees below zero and how much of a PITA it is changing a tire at that temp. The price of sensors is also rather high so I’m in favor of automakers adopting other systems like the Indirect TPMS Honda uses that works off the ABS and in theory should last the life of the vehicle.
And who doesn’t like those funny Volvo Moose Ferrari badge stickers even though few if any outside of enthusiasts know about the moose test. Here is one spoofed from Lamborghini.
Glad you’re still enjoying your C30 – I still have my 2012/M66 and hardly ever think of trading it in on something newer – still love that 5 cylinder growl.
I remember the fire engine color switch as well; quite jarring when I was a kid. They didn’t last very long in our area either; I always assumed red was so ingrained as “Fire truck!” that any other color would just be confusing to other drivers.
The public are a fickle lot. This technically-impressive car had a heap of safety stuff that’s now standard, yet it took years to become so for most makes, and I ponder why. Could it be that the dreary look of the Volvo put folk off the idea of paying more for safety? It’s got to be arguable. I’ve got no doubt Detroit argued it hard, and for years, behind the curtains of democracy.
I don’t personally mind the looks, and didn’t then, but to many, it looked like a clothing for naked emperors. “Oh, sure, you’re safe, and rich, but you look ridiculous”. And it doesn’t help here that this 240 has an early version of that astoundingly awful four-square-headlight jobbie, a chromey and almost-comically overwrought addition to the basic car that managed to out-fugly the original.
This a great series, Mr H, and, as Oliver Twist said, more please, sir.
ADAS should be outright outlawed, along with Damned Daytime Running Lights. Both contribute to the stupidification of motorists.
Loading explosives into the passenger compartment seems like a silly way to promote “safety”. There’s got to be a better way.
https://carstyling.ru/en/car/1972_gm_esv/ GM and Ford experimental safely vehicles
https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/volvos-vesc-concept-1972-changed-auto-safety/