While Volvo has always been known for its safety efforts in the automotive industry, the company is now on a long-range mission that no Volvo cars be involved in collisions in the future. As part of that overall mission, it has set a shorter-term goal that nobody be seriously injured or killed in a new Volvo by 2020 and is currently working on three safety technologies to meet that goal.

The first technology focuses on helping drivers stay in their lane by using autonomous driving in traffic situations. With this technology, the car follows the vehicle in front of it (shown here) with the steering, brakes and engine responding automatically using data inputs from radar sensors and a camera. While the car is in an automated mode, the driver can take control at any time.

The second technology is designed to prevent collisions in intersections, which currently represent more than 20 percent of all fatal accidents in the U.S. With the Intersection Support technology, sensors in the car assess the entire intersection and can automatically activate the car's brakes faster than the driver to prevent a collision.

The third technology builds on Volvo's Pedestrian Detection system to help prevent collisions with wild animals or the accidents caused by swerving to avoid them. The Animal Detection technology accesses a large database to recognize an animal's shape and movement pattern at about 100 feet even in low light conditions and then slow the car down. By automatically slowing the car and warning the driver of an animal that he may not even be able to see, the chances of a collision with the animal or emergency driving maneuver to avoid the animal are greatly reduced.

While Volvo is still in the testing phase on these technologies, Volvo plans to have all of these systems in place on its full product line within the next eight years. Expect to see the systems phased in on various Volvo models as the cars are redesigned.