ROCKLEIGH, NJ – Volvo Car Corp. provided a look at how far its vehicle safety technologies have come since the start of the new millennium. The company also provided an update on the technologies it's developing.

“Our own, extensive accident data base shows that the risk of being injured in one of our latest car models has been reduced with around 50 percent since the year 2000,” said Thomas Broberg, Senior Safety Advisor at Volvo Car Corporation. “And we are working on new technologies that will bring the figure down even further.”

The automaker also cited two other sets of studies, one from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which stated the company’s automatic braking technology results in 22% fewer collisions. A study by Swedish insurance company Volvia showed that Volvo vehicles equipped with an automatic braking system were involved in 22% fewer rear-end collisions than those without this technology.

Other recent nods to the brand’s safety from IIHS include the Volvo S60 earning the best rating in a new small offset frontal crash test, and five of the automaker’s vehicles receiving a Top Safety Pick rating (the C30, S60, S80, XC60, and XC90).

Volvo also mentioned three new technologies it’s working on. They include Autonomous Driving Support, which uses data from an on-board camera and radar sensors to direct the vehicle to follow another in front of it; Intersection Support, which alerts a driver and can automatically brake for cross traffic; and Animal Detection, which is designed to detect and brake for large animals crossing the road (for example, elk or deer in rural areas).