[ActiveArch]

Just want to share my story…

While stopped at a left only red light today, there was traffic passing to a green light on my right. I happen to have entered the left lane a bit late and was somewhat close to the lane to my right. While stopped a car drove past that happened to be a bit too close for comfort for our xc90 and both the passenger and I were absolutely and aggressively sucked into our seats as the car was bracing for a potential impact. The car passed us just fine and it was obviously a false positive, but a great experience honestly, nice to know the car is looking out for us and has our back, quite literally lol.

Now, I’ve read about this infamous “volvo seatbelt hug” on the forum before, so I instantly knew what had happened, and saw the collision notification popup in the gauge cluster. Meanwhile, my cousin in the passenger seat was yelling at the top of his lungs, “WHAT IS HAPPENING, WHAAAT IS HAPPENING!?”

I couldn’t stop laughing and explained to him what happened, and how the car was making sure he is as safe as possible, that the seatbelt motor had activated. My cousin instantly replied with, I don’t know man, I’m never buying a volvo! that **** was scary! Moments later after the shock had passed he was quite impressed.

All in all, great experience. I keep remembering the moment and laughing randomly to myself, loved that feature. Is this only a Volvo thing or do other manufacturers have a feature like this as well? So cool.

 

[2020XC90T8]

A few days after we picked ours up I was waiting for traffic to clear and make a left hand turn when a truck was approaching the back of me too fast and the car prepared for a rear end accident that didn't happen. The truck swerved at the last second and missed hitting me. Thank god. But the seat belt pulled me into the back of the seat and scared the crap out of me. That was nuts! Then a few days later I was driving over rail road tracks too quickly and the vehicle almost got airborne which totally surprised me. Completely unexpected. The seat belt did the same thing. I love Volvo as a result of that!

 

[VolvoUhu]

I was rear ended in a 45mph zone within seconds of having stopped at a red light. Just as I came to a full stop my belt tightened and then I heard a bang. I was so puzzled and remembered looking behind and around to make sense of what had happened.

The driver behind us was puzzled why I had stopped. She hadn’t seen the light turn red and clearly not seen me stopping for it. The impact was so hard it completely crushed her front and bent the A pillars on her car preventing her doors from opening.

The seatbelt hug was so perfectly timed I didn’t even feel the impact. I only got clued in when I noticed the collision warning in the DIM (dash) and double checked the rear vie and side view mirrors. Our daughter was in her rear facing Volvo car seat. She her head had bounced off her seat back and was not injured only surprised by her head bumping her headrest.

One of many great Volvo features we’ve benefited from our many years of Volvo ownership.

 

[ActiveArch]

I was rear ended in a 45mph zone within seconds of having stopped at a red light. Just as I came to a full stop my belt tightened and then I heard a bang. I was so puzzled and remembered looking behind and around to make sense of what had happened.

The driver behind us was puzzled why I had stopped. She hadn’t seen the light turn red and clearly not seen me stopping for it. The impact was so hard it completely crushed her front and bent the A pillars on her car preventing her doors from opening.

The seatbelt hug was so perfectly timed I didn’t even feel the impact. I only got clued in when I noticed the collision warning in the DIM (dash) and double checked the rear vie and side view mirrors. Our daughter was in her rear facing Volvo car seat. She her head had bounced off her seat back and was not injured only surprised by her head bumping her headrest.

One of many great Volvo features we’ve benefited from our many years of Volvo ownership.

Wow!! Thoroughly impressed, it’s amazing that you didn’t even feel the impact, sounds like the WHIPS system must have also activated. That’s just incredible, glad to know you and your daughter are safe. I have a 15 month old daughter and another daughter due soon in March. This is exactly why we chose to buy a Volvo after exhaustive car shopping. How bad was the damage on your car? Thanks for sharing your story.

 

[ActiveArch]

A few days after we picked ours up I was waiting for traffic to clear and make a left hand turn when a truck was approaching the back of me too fast and the car prepared for a rear end accident that didn't happen. The truck swerved at the last second and missed hitting me. Thank god. But the seat belt pulled me into the back of the seat and scared the crap out of me. That was nuts! Then a few days later I was driving over rail road tracks too quickly and the vehicle almost got airborne which totally surprised me. Completely unexpected. The seat belt did the same thing. I love Volvo as a result of that!

Haha, I’ll make sure to slow down over the railroad tracks, got quite a few around our area. Glad the truck missed you too.

 

[razl]

I was driving over an area that was undergoing highway construction and the current bit of road was "temporary" - they had diverted a large portion to an alternate, temporary portion while working on the main road. It had slightly uneven sections and at the speed i was travelling, created a rhythm with the suspension where over just a few seconds at about 70mph I got a small bounce, a slightly bigger bounce, then a bigger bounce, then a real bounce when the seatbelt winched me in and totally pinned me to the seat. Fortunately, that was the last bounce and I was just at the point where I realized what was happening and eased off the gas. The timing of the road "panels" with the progressive suspension bounce was very weird but I was really surprised when the car decided to preemptively take safety measures like that - I had a moment of "what just happened?" and then it eased off. At the time, I didn't know it would do that!

 

[Ultrarunner511]

During our OSD in 2017 we had to hit the brakes really hard for slowing traffic in Germany. Got the first “hug” from Volvo. It was impressive. It happened to my wife last week with the 2017 and it was a reminder why we drive them.


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[BeachBoy]

There is a hump in the road that the kids love to go over as their stomach goes up hehe

If we go above a very specific speed the seatbelts will pull and it's quite intense. On mph below and no movement.

It doesn't need any brake it can pull with the car "floating" over a bump

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

 

[Xc90bald]

Why do I suddenly have the urge to launch my xc90 over a bump? Pretty wild, I didn’t know about this until I read this thread. Sounds really neat, thank you for the info in case it happens.

 

[Ultrarunner511]

Why do I suddenly have the urge to launch my xc90 over a bump? Pretty wild, I didn’t know about this until I read this thread. Sounds really neat, thank you for the info in case it happens.

It almost takes the wind out of you. It’s startling the first time. I think it’s a self correcting error for anyone who drives like they’re “cool” leaning on the center console in the 1 or 2 o’clock position


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[ActiveArch]

It almost takes the wind out of you. It’s startling the first time. I think it’s a self correcting error for anyone who drives like they’re “cool” leaning on the center console in the 1 or 2 o’clock position

Yeah you’ll definitely never drive like that again after experiencing it! At least not in a Volvo lol.

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[rsfpc05]

Fascinating thread. I had no idea about this safety feature. Hopefully never need to experience it but now I know it’s there.

 

[VolvoUhu]

I was driving over an area that was undergoing highway construction and the current bit of road was "temporary" - they had diverted a large portion to an alternate, temporary portion while working on the main road. It had slightly uneven sections and at the speed i was travelling, created a rhythm with the suspension where over just a few seconds at about 70mph I got a small bounce, a slightly bigger bounce, then a bigger bounce, then a real bounce when the seatbelt winched me in and totally pinned me to the seat. Fortunately, that was the last bounce and I was just at the point where I realized what was happening and eased off the gas. The timing of the road "panels" with the progressive suspension bounce was very weird but I was really surprised when the car decided to preemptively take safety measures like that - I had a moment of "what just happened?" and then it eased off. At the time, I didn't know it would do that!

It sounds like you triggered the run-off road mitigation safety feature where it felt you were bouncing your way off the road and into a ditch. That’s really cool that it can be experienced safely or at least one where it didn’t end up with your XC90 out of control from a bouncing perspective as that could have led to a crash from loss of control if it persisted. Plus you didn’t have to replace the seats after that scenario. In the even of a true run-off the seat supports would have crushed absorbing the impact for your spine.

 

[partridge]

I do like that the xc90 has the electrical pretentioners because the car can afford to be more proactive like this. In other models with the pyrotechnic tensioners they’re more of a last resort thing.

 

[VolvoFaRmeR]

Why do I suddenly have the urge to launch my xc90 over a bump? Pretty wild, I didn’t know about this until I read this thread. Sounds really neat, thank you for the info in case it happens.

You don’t have to go jump the car to experience this “on demand“ any time you want. Simply travel 55mph and maintain a constant speed for a short time. Then lift off the gas pedal as fast as you can and stab the brake pedal….belts will cinch every time. The computer looks for the rate of speed at which the gas pedal snaps back to rest/zero position followed by an immediate brake pedal application with a high rate of speed. You don’t need to floor the brakes or even engage ABS necessarily (of course you can without issue), but you can experience the electric pretensioned ant time by doing this. Releasing the brake pedal and waiting a few seconds will lead to the belt tension released. I’ve showed my mom this so she could experience what it’s like in case it happens, and it’s a neat party trick to show friends about Volvo safety.

I was at a stoplight when car flew up behind me crazy close before swerving into the turning lane next to me with a green light….belts tightened, car applied maximum brake pressure (I could feel the pedal firm up under my foot) and I got the rear collision warning message. It is startling, but amazing the car is always watching out for your. I unfortunately have also experienced head on collision crash mitigation personally in action, and that was an eye opening experience that shows the car can react faster than you can in many situations

 

[ActiveArch]

You don’t have to go jump the car to experience this “on demand“ any time you want. Simply travel 55mph and maintain a constant speed for a short time. Then lift off the gas pedal as fast as you can and stab the brake pedal….belts will cinch every time. The computer looks for the rate of speed at which the gas pedal snaps back to rest/zero position followed by an immediate brake pedal application with a high rate of speed. You don’t need to floor the brakes or even engage ABS necessarily (of course you can without issue), but you can experience the electric pretensioned ant time by doing this. Releasing the brake pedal and waiting a few seconds will lead to the belt tension released. I’ve showed my mom this so she could experience what it’s like in case it happens, and it’s a neat party trick to show friends about Volvo safety.

I was at a stoplight when car flew up behind me crazy close before swerving into the turning lane next to me with a green light….belts tightened, car applied maximum brake pressure (I could feel the pedal firm up under my foot) and I got the rear collision warning message. It is startling, but amazing the car is always watching out for your. I unfortunately have also experienced head on collision crash mitigation personally in action, and that was an eye opening experience that shows the car can react faster than you can in many situations

This is really good to know, think I might want to show my wife how it feels as well since she drives it to work daily. This is our first Volvo and I’m fascinated at how cautiously Volvo has orchestrated all these safety features. I feel like I’m going to be a Volvo fan for life because of these very details. It’s also likely all the pros around safety features will outweigh any cons related to other nuisances like glithchy infotainment and lack of other non-critical features. Anyway thanks for this bit of info.

 

[Brutus99]

There is a hump in the road that the kids love to go over as their stomach goes up hehe

If we go above a very specific speed the seatbelts will pull and it's quite intense. On mph below and no movement.

It doesn't need any brake it can pull with the car "floating" over a bump

Yes exactly, happened to me few times It's definitely a very tight hug lol

 

[.360500]

Has the seatbelts do this to me in a couple of different scenarios.
1. Stopped a red light and the car comes in hot from the back, the seatbelt tightened and I got a message about "imminent rear crash" or something;
2. That's a street near my house that has a steep incline, if I go up the incline fast enough, the seatbelts will tighten at the top of the ramp. I believe it's because of loss of traction due to the uplift;

 

[Chris451]

Try and remember that when Volvo first demonstrated this type of tech., WHICH BY THE WAY MOST ALL OTHER MANUFACTURERS GET FROM VOLVO, the President / GM of Volvo walked in front of the test vehicle and the vehicle promptly ran him over. My test Tesla, knows when I duct tape a coke can to the steering wheel to try to defeat the sensor,...but my Tesla frequently steers into lanes that are not there.

On the other hand the "stop" front end feature really works. At this point there are literally over a hundred thousand references by Liberty Mutual and FM over how these systems have helped with the most common front end, "NOT paying attention," and "following too close, " situations. Considering the amount of tailgating taking place world wide,...these front end systems should / will become MANDATORY, soon. Perhaps if people didn't try to justify their poor driving ,...WAY too close to other vehicles,.....rather than blaming the teck,.......

 

[VolvoFaRmeR]

Try and remember that when Volvo first demonstrated this type of tech., WHICH BY THE WAY MOST ALL OTHER MANUFACTURERS GET FROM VOLVO, the President / GM of Volvo walked in front of the test vehicle and the vehicle promptly ran him over.

As an Uber-Volvo enthusiast, I have never heard this story. I’m highly skeptical this is true.