THE emphasis was firmly on safety with style, as the latest Volvo S60 made its international debut at the Geneva Motor Show.

The slightly stretched saloon with coupé styling may be sportier and more distinct than any previous Volvo but it’s the Swedish car maker’s time-honoured emphasis on safety that many buyers will find most appealing.

And leading the way is the pioneering Pedestrian Detection with Full Auto Brake system, which stops the car if the system detects an imminent collision with a pedestrian and will also use the brakes to avoid hitting a car in front.

It operates via a radar unit integrated into the car’s grille, a camera fitted in front of the interior rear-view mirror and a central control unit.

The radar’s task is to detect any object in front of the car and to determine the distance to it while the camera determines what type of object it is.

The full auto brake part of the technology also responds to vehicles in front that are at a standstill, or that are moving in the same direction as the car fitted with the system.

And the newly developed radar’s much wider field of vision ensures that pedestrians about to step into the roadway can be detected early on. The camera has higher resolution than the previous-generation auto brake, which makes it possible to detect the pedestrian’s pattern of movement.

“Detecting pedestrians with sufficiently high reliability has been a complex challenge,” says Volvo’s senior safety adviser Thomas Broberg.

“Our innovative technology is programmed to trace a pedestrian’s pattern of movement and also to calculate whether he or she is likely to step into the road in front of the car. The system can detect pedestrians who are 80cm tall and upwards – that is to say, including children.”

Pedestrian Detection with Full Auto Brake can avoid a collision with a pedestrian at speeds of up to 21mph if the driver does not react in time.

At higher speeds, the focus is on reducing the car’s speed as much as possible prior to the impact. The speed reduction is up to 21mph. The new S60 also features City Safety as standard, as seen on its bigger brother – the XC60. The system can reduce or even entirely avoid low-speed rear- end impacts at speeds up to 18mph.

To deliver the highest levels of driving enjoyment, the chassis team has refined every detail that influences a car’s driving properties and fine-tuned the driving experience to offer the most dynamic ride ever seen before on a Volvo. The S60 range will be available from launch this summer with a choice of two diesels and one petrol engine, including an uprated high- performance three-litre T6 petrol version with 304bhp, a 2.4-litre 205bhp D5 and a two-litre 163bhp D3 powerplant.

Prices have yet to be announced.

A DRIVe version powered by a 1.6-litre diesel engine, with CO² emissions of approximately 115g/km, and fuel economy of up to 65.7mpg, will join the range later in 2011.