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Volkswagen is developing a suite of safety features to protect drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. The technology is expected to debut first in Europe, with the new ID.7 wagon likely being the first model to offer the new Proactive Occupant Protection System and Proactive Safety System. The company has posted some short YouTube clips to show how some of the new features work.
The first new safety feature is called the Active Hood system. If a pedestrian should suddenly appear in front of the car — having stepped out from behind a parked truck, perhaps — the hood pops just before impact in order to better distribute the force of a collision. Better a bent hood than broken bones, apparently. Assuming no impact takes place, the hood pulls itself closed again. The refreshed Tesla Model 3 does something similar but without the self closing feature. Volkswagen intends to put the system into production soon, perhaps concurrent with the introduction of the ID.7.
Autoblog says Volkswagen engineers and software developers were focused on limiting the harm from vehicle collisions, and Volkswagen was determined to design for the worst with its latest round of safety systems. The second in the lineup, the Proactive Occupant Protection system, is designed to predict when a crash is imminent and prepare for impact. In another short video, Volkswagen showed the system in action using a fake vehicle driving toward the side of an occupied SUV. As the fake vehicle approaches at a high speed, the Proactive Occupant Protection system automatically tightens the seat belts and rolls the windows up.
The Volkswagen Proactive Safety System
Imagine passing out behind the wheel, whether it’s due to low blood sugar, lack of sleep, or a medical emergency. That’s the exact scenario that Volkswagen’s Proactive Safety System is designed to handle. Through a multitude of steps, the system will attempt to wake the driver before pulling off to the side of the road on its own. Once the system detects the driver is no longer in control, it will let out warning alerts before hard braking in extremely short bursts in an attempt to wake the driver. If the driver fails to respond, the car will automatically drive to the emergency lane, honk the horn to alert other drivers, and turn on its hazard lights. Once the vehicle comes to a complete stop, the doors will unlock to provide first responders access in the event of a medical emergency.
While none of the systems shown are available yet, Volkswagen expects them to launch in the near future. Whether you have older or inexperienced drivers in the family, VW’s Proactive Safety System will be an asset that can provide peace of mind.
Volkswagen Golf First To Get Rivian Technology
The new software joint venture between Rivian and Volkswagen is only a few weeks old, but there are already signs the joint venture will first focus on the upcoming electric Golf. Later, it will be part of the new Trinity program the company has been pursuing for several years already. That sequencing is based on statements by Volkswagen brand boss Thomas Schäfer, who is quoted by Automotive News Europe as saying, “We decided on how to do the software-defined vehicle. It will happen with Rivian, the joint venture, where we put the new electric electronics architecture together. But we have also decided that we want to start this journey with a more iconic product. So we’ll start with the Golf.” According to Electrive, models from Porsche and Audi will benefit from the joint venture beginning in 2027, but exactly which models will incorporate the Rivian technology remains to be seen.
The 50:50 joint venture founded earlier this month is called Rivian and VW Group Technology, LLC and is headed by Wassym Bensaid (Rivian) and Carsten Helbing (Volkswagen Group). For Volkswagen, the joint venture is a new attempt to catch up on its software backlog. Specifically, the partners aim to create an advanced technology platform for software defined vehicles based on Rivian’s existing software and electrical architecture. The partners now put the total volume of the deal at up to $5.8 billion (€5.5 billion). Volkswagen is shouldering this investment alone.
Schäfer’s statements are a further indication of the priorities that Rivian and Volkswagen have negotiated. The market launch of Rivian’s R2 volume model is planned for the first half of 2026. As mentioned, the first Volkswagen models based on the jointly developed Rivian architecture will follow in 2027. The first cars to use the Rivian technology could be from the new Scout brand and an electric Porsche SUV. Until now, it was assumed that the MEB and the further development MEB+ would continue to be based on the E3 software from Volkswagen software subsidiary Cariad, but that is now only partly true.
According to Automotive News, the new electric VW Golf is set to be the first electric vehicle from the Volkswagen brand to benefit from Rivian tech when it debuts in 2029. That is in line with German media reports, which wrote back in the summer that the launch of the all-electric successor to the VW Golf would be postponed by 15 months, to 2029. Current rumors suggest a market launch for cars based on the Trinity platform will not arrive until 2032 — at the earliest.
The Takeaway
It is wonderful news that Volkswagen is taking steps to protect drivers, passengers, and pedestrians from harm when accidents happen. We aren’t sure how much good rolling up the windows does in a crash, and being able to bring a car safely to a halt if the driver becomes incapacitated seems like a good idea, but will it pale in comparison to the self-driving technology Tesla and several Chinese car companies are promoting?
We are also left to wonder what the status of the vaunted Cariad division will be going forward. That was the unit that was supposed to get Volkswagen’s vehicle tech back on track but failed miserably to so at every turn. Is it now a junior partner to Rivian or a competitor? No one seems to know and people within the company aren’t talking very much about Cariad these days.
The real question is whether Volkswagen as we know it will survive. The unions representing its workers have begun strikes to protest plans to shutter factories in Germany for their first time in the company’s history. It is likely they are concerned that the company has stuffed $22 billion into the already overflowing pockets of the Porsche and Piëch families lately and has now shoveled nearly $6 billion more into the corporate coffers of Rivian. There used to be an unwritten rule at Volkswagen that once you got a job with the company, you would always have a job at the company. People don’t like it when rules — even unwritten once — get changed without notice.
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