As we all know, trucks and cars alike – and all the components that comprise those two classes of vehicles – get rigorously tested in a variety of ways before going into final production. And, as we also all know so well, such testing never quite eliminates all the “bugs” that can plague those ever-more complex machines, unfortunately.
Still, all sorts of laboratory-based efforts and punishing test track courses help vehicle engineers at least get rid of the obvious weak points.
For starters, let’s look at cars – in this case Volvo Group’s testing facility in Hällered, Sweden, opened a few years back primarily for the testing of new traffic-safety solutions.
“Our engineers are developing the next generation of intelligent systems to assist the driver,” noted Torbjörn Holmström, Volvo’s chief technology officer (and these guys are a wholly separate entity from the truck folks, mind you) who pointed out the company is expanding its facility with a whole new wing due to be completed in 2014.
“Hällered is where we will be able to test the intelligent safety systems that we are currently developing, which will bring us closer to our goal of [developing] products resulting in zero accidents,” he added.
[You can watch some of the testing that takes place out on the Hällered test track in the video clip below, along with some seriously overwrought narration, too.]