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Volvo Provides Test Car for New Safety Device Examination

18 September 1998

Volvo Provides Test Car for New Safety Device Examination

    ROCKLEIGH, N.J., Sept. 18 -- There is little doubt that
removing unfit drivers from the roads would improve traffic safety
substantially.
    Fred Goldberg has come up with an idea to achieve exactly that.
Goldberg's stepdaughter was tragically killed five years ago by a drunken
driver who was operating his vehicle holding a suspended driver's license.  An
inventor, Goldberg has designed a concept whereby a driver's license equipped
with a computer chip is used as the ignition key to a car.  Without a valid
license or insurance, it will be impossible to drive a car equipped with this
system.
    Goldberg will present his idea during a seminar in Irvine, California
September 21-22, 1998.  Volvo has agreed to equip a Volvo S70 sedan with
Goldberg's invention and display it at this seminar.  Afterward, the car will
be loaned to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee for six months for
testing and participation in other conferences.
    "Technically it is feasible to develop the Electronic License system with
today's technology.  However, there is a need to explore the concept before
the governments of the world can consider the device applicable to real life
driving.  With the Volvo S70, we support the research that the Laboratory will
undertake to analyze the viability of the system.  This sort of analysis is in
line with Volvo's own safety research policy," says William Shapiro, director
of safety engineering at Volvo Cars of North America. Inc.