Elanso

Having been in the business of making incredibly safe vehicles for decades, Volvo is going one step further and making a "virtually" injury-proof car by the year 2020. "Virtually," because it will ensure all occupents survive all but the craziest wrecks. Not only is Volvo making the car more resistant to crashes, but they're putting stuff like radar and sonar in order to automatically force the car to brake when a collision is imminent, lowering death rates by half with just a 10 MPH decrease in smash speed.

Is this death-proof car a good thing for everybody? It's definitely good for the people riding in the car, but if you drove around in a vehicle that you knew would protect you from accidents, would you be more cautious or less cautious? That's one of the complaints we've heard about big SUVs—it's supposedly more safe for you, but completely ruptures the person you hit who's driving a small car. [Wired]