Volvo Cars Care Key Will Let You Set Speed Limit Before Lending Others Your Car

When lending others your car, you can never know what they will get up to, how fast they will be driving and if they will be safe. According to the World Health Organisation, more than 1.25 million people die each year as a result of road traffic crashes. Injuries from road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death among people aged between 15 and 29 years of age. Between 20 and 50 million more people suffer non-fatal injuries and with Speeding being one of the main culprit, Volvo’s new Care Key could be key in reducing the rate of road accidents by speeding, especially among young drivers.

Volvo Cars Care Key allows any Volvo buyer to set a speed limit for themselves, their family members or friends. The Care Key allows you to set the car’s top speed, before lending your car to other family members or to younger and inexperienced drivers such as teenagers that only just passed their driving tests. For me, it’s more about giving you, the car owner, peace of mind knowing that whoever is driving your car will be within a safe speed limit that allows them to stop safely when they need to. From experience, trying to stop at a higher speed is harder and out of your control when compared to driving at lower speeds.

The launch of the Care Key follows the announcement earlier this month that Volvo Cars will limit the top speed on all its cars to 180 kph from 2020, in order to send a strong signal about the dangers of speeding.

Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Cars’ chief executive, said this month that the company wants to start a conversation about whether car makers have the right or maybe even the obligation to install technology in cars that change their owners’ behaviour. Now that such technology is available to use, this question becomes even more important. The speed limit and the Care Key are both part of that initiative and illustrate how car makers can take active responsibility for striving to achieve zero traffic fatalities by supporting better driver behaviour.

Besides its safety aspect, it could also lead to drivers’ insurance premium seeing some reduction since it means they won’t be able to go over the assigned speed limit. Volvo is currently inviting insurance companies in
several markets to offer special, favourable insurance to the Volvo community using these safety features. Specific deals and terms will depend on local market circumstances, but Volvo Cars expects to announce the first of several agreements with national insurance firms soon.