MichaelW

The "A-pillar" is the vertical frame of a car windscreen. With modern "safety" design, its been getting bigger and bigger. Im sure my one crash with a car was because I dissapeared from view behind the pillar.
Now Volvo are designing an A-pillar which has glasss see-through sections, so cyclists and pedestrians can no-longer be hidden from view.
Im glad to see one manufacturere recognise this fault.

Pete Clark

I'm not suprised it was Volvo.

John E

Thank you for a very interesting thread. Visibility is a huge safety issue, to which too many automobile designers pay far too little heed.

D*Alex

Back in the late 1950's, Chrysler attempted to address this concern with a pillarless show car. The roof had beams under tension, and instead of true a-pillars, there were only thin "hold-downs", which sat inside of the glass. The idea was that, with the roof beams pulling upward only, all you would need is a very thin rod of steel to keep it together. Unfortunately, the one example of this idea was made by Ghia in Italy, and sank with the Andrea Doria.

bac

Yup - it looks like it's purely a concept car @ this point. However, some of the advances will surely find their way into production cars - both for Volvo, and its parent company - Ford. Here's a pic:



... and, here's a link:

Volvo Concept

Arsbars

Pretty car

trmcgeehan

Volvos are great cars -- I've had five over the years. But if you get one, be sure there's a local dealer handy. I took my 1993 Volvo 240 to a local mechanic, and $500 later, he still couldn't find the electrical problem. So I had it towed 75 miles to the nearest Volvo dealer, and they found the problem quickly and corrected it. The dealer said he has had Master Mechanics come from GM and Ford dealerships and had to be extensively trained on the Volvo. We have 200,000 on this Volvo, and it still doesn't use any oil. And Volvo isn't the only car that's somewhat expensive to fix. I met a guy at a party last night who has a '95 Jeep Grand Cherokee. He said he has a bad mini computer on his heater, which will cost $800 to replace new through a dealer. He's looking for a used one at a junk yard. Volvos don't break too often, but when they do, get out your wallet.

pinerider

The way they cram everything into the cars these days, they are all expensive to repair. Usually 2 or 3 things have to be reomoved to get at whatever needs fixing.
Back to the A pillars, I owned an 87 Ford Taurus wagon that had very thick A pillars - I had trouble seeing cars coming, never mind bikes!! I always try to make sure I have eye contact with drivers of cars waiting on sidestreets at intersections before I proceed through.

Raiyn

Volvo was around long before any affiliation with Ford. That being said they still make some of the safest cages out there.