Volvo Delicately Dances Into the Semi-Autonomous Future

Volvo's newly redesigned midsize SUV, the XC60, features all the safety-minded fancy features you'd expect from an automaker trying to eliminate deaths and serious injuries in its vehicles by 2020. Its rollover mitigation system tightens the seat belts to put you in the safest position in the event things go sideways and topsy-turvy. If you risk a head-on collision by wandering out of your lane, it will actively steer you back. It helps you weave around pedestrians, animals, and vehicles that might materialize ahead of you by steering more aggressively and precisely than you might on your own. Those last two capabilities are both new, and they open a curious question about the potential and limits of driver assistance: Before the robots take over, can these new systems make humans better drivers?