Volvo Is Lowering the Top Speed on Their Cars

In an effort to curb vehicle-related deaths, automaker Volvo is reducing the top speed on their cars, CNBC reports.

Even though many car manufacturers are creating bigger and faster models of cars, Volvo is taking the opposite approach and pulling back the reins a bit on how quickly their cars zip around the globe.

As part of Volvo’s Vision 2020 initiative, the car company will reduce the top speeds of their vehicles from 130 miles per hour to 112 miles per hour starting next year.

“While a speed limitation is not a cure-all, it’s worth doing if we can even save one life,” the Swedish car maker’s president and CEO, Hakan Samuelsson, said in a statement.

The auto industry has been hesitant in the past to lower the speeds, so it’s uncertain what could happen to Volvo sales once the change goes into effect next year.

“We want to start a conversation about whether car makers have the right or maybe even an obligation to install technology in cars that changes their driver’s behavior, to tackle things like speeding, intoxication or distraction,” Samuelsson said.

The National Safety Council says 40,000 people were killed last year in traffic accidents.