Hi Steve

One of the talks was from Paul Brooks who is a technical training manager from Volvo. This was all about the safety systems that Volvo have introduced on their vehicles since 2005 and what we can expect in the future

One of the systems is to detect how far in front vehicles are, this system can be used for cruise control and slowing the vehicle if the driver gets to close or nods off

The sensor is mounted up by the drivers mirror and sends out an invisible laser. So in about 5 years when you get one in with a cruise control fault logged or one of many quirky brake safety codes, you may need to check if the beam is working, but being invisible how do you know its active?

Well turn on your mobile phone camera and stand in front of the vehicle, if the system is working ok then you should see a red dot on your screen, the camera can see the beam. So go and have a play with your TV remote

See, I was paying attention

Peter