Volvo Invests in Anti-Theft System Based on Radio Technology

Volvo AB, parent company of Volvo Trucks North America and Mack Trucks Inc., said it was working on a new tractor-trailer anti-theft system based on intelligent radio technology and sensors.

Volvo said Feb. 20 that it had bought an undisclosed interest in the Swedish company Datachassi, which invented the system, and would work to develop and make it available to all truck and trailer manufacturers and companies.

“We foresee a huge potential for this invention, which has good possibilities of becoming an industry standard,” Per Wassen, investment manager at Volvo Technology Transfer, said in a statement.

Volvo said the system modifies a trailer’s sidelights to equip them with sensors and radio beacons that communicate with each other.

“When objects or persons come too close to the trailer, the sensors are triggered and send alarm signals via the radio beacons to the cab,” Volvo said. “The alarm can then be sent wireless to a central server or to a security company, depending on how the system is programmed.”

Datachassi’s Swedish patent application has received positive preliminary approval, and Datachassi has applied for a world patent, Volvo said.