For enhanced safety, the front and rear seat shoulder belts of the Volvo XC60 have pretensioners to tighten the seatbelts and eliminate dangerous slack in the event of a collision and force limiters to limit the pressure the belts will exert on the passengers. The Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport doesn’t offer pretensioners for its rear seat belts.
The XC60’s pre-crash front seatbelts will tighten automatically in the event the vehicle detects an impending crash, improving protection against injury significantly. The Atlas Cross Sport doesn’t offer pre-crash pretensioners.
Both the XC60 and Atlas Cross Sport have child safety locks to prevent children from opening the rear doors. The XC60 Plus/Ultimate/Polestar has power child safety locks, allowing the driver to activate and deactivate them from the driver's seat and to know when they're engaged. The Atlas Cross Sport’s child locks have to be individually engaged at each rear door with a manual switch. The driver can’t know the status of the locks without opening the doors and checking them.
The Volvo XC60 offers optional built in child booster seats. They’re more crash worthy than an added child seat because of their direct attachment to the seat. Volkswagen doesn’t offer the convenience and security of a built-in child booster seat in the Atlas Cross Sport. Their owners must carry a heavy booster seat in and out of the vehicle; XC60 owners can just fold their built-in child seat up or down.
The Volvo XC60 has a standard driver’s side knee airbag mounted low on the dashboard. The knee airbag helps prevent the driver from sliding under the seatbelts or the main frontal airbag; this keeps the driver better positioned during a collision for maximum protection. A knee airbag also helps keep the legs from striking the dashboard, preventing knee and leg injuries in the case of a serious frontal collision. The Atlas Cross Sport doesn’t offer knee airbags.
Using vehicle speed sensors and seat sensors, smart airbags in the XC60 deploy with different levels of force or don’t deploy at all to help better protect passengers of all sizes in different collisions. The XC60’s side airbags will shut off if a child is leaning against the door. The Atlas Cross Sport’s side airbags don’t have smart features and will always deploy full force.
The XC60 has a standard Whiplash Protection System (WHIPS), which use a specially designed seat to protect the driver and front passenger from whiplash. During a rear-end collision, the WHIPS allows the backrest to travel backwards to cushion the occupants and the headrests move forward to prevent neck and spine injuries. At the same time the pretensioning seatbelts fire, removing slack from the belts. The Atlas Cross Sport doesn’t offer a whiplash protection system.
To provide maximum traction and stability on all roads, All-Wheel Drive is standard on the XC60. But it costs extra on the Atlas Cross Sport.
The XC60’s driver alert monitor detects an inattentive driver then sounds a warning and suggests a break. According to the NHTSA, drivers who fall asleep cause about 100,000 crashes and 1500 deaths a year. The Atlas Cross Sport doesn’t offer a driver alert monitor.
Both the XC60 and the Atlas Cross Sport have standard driver and passenger frontal airbags, front side-impact airbags, side-impact head airbags, height adjustable front shoulder belts, plastic fuel tanks, four-wheel antilock brakes, traction control, electronic stability systems to prevent skidding, crash mitigating brakes, post-collision automatic braking systems, daytime running lights, lane departure warning systems, blind spot warning systems, rearview cameras, rear cross-path warning and available around view monitors.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does 35 MPH front crash tests on new vehicles. In this test, results indicate that the Volvo XC60 is safer than the Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport:
|
|
XC60 |
Atlas Cross Sport |
| OVERALL STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
|
|
Driver |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
| HIC |
125 |
307 |
| Neck Injury Risk |
22% |
30% |
| Neck Stress |
198 lbs. |
412 lbs. |
| Neck Compression |
15 lbs. |
59 lbs. |
|
|
Passenger |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
4 Stars |
| HIC |
178 |
277 |
| Chest Compression |
.5 inches |
.7 inches |
| Neck Injury Risk |
28% |
39% |
| Neck Compression |
55 lbs. |
117 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration does side impact tests on new vehicles. In this test, which crashes the vehicle into a flat barrier at 38.5 MPH and into a post at 20 MPH, results indicate that the Volvo XC60 is safer than the Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport:
|
|
XC60 |
Atlas Cross Sport |
|
|
Front Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Hip Force |
190 lbs. |
215 lbs. |
|
|
Rear Seat |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| HIC |
185 |
208 |
|
|
Into Pole |
|
| STARS |
5 Stars |
5 Stars |
| Max Damage Depth |
12 inches |
13 inches |
| HIC |
237 |
309 |
| Spine Acceleration |
29 G’s |
41 G’s |
| Hip Force |
410 lbs. |
594 lbs. |
New test not comparable to pre-2011 test results. More stars = Better. Lower test results = Better.
For its top level performance in IIHS driver and passenger-side small overlap frontal, moderate overlap frontal, side impact, roof strength and head restraint tests, its standard vehicle-to-vehicle front crash prevention system, its standard vehicle-to-pedestrian front crash prevention system, and its standard headlight’s “Acceptable” rating, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety grants the XC60 its highest rating: “Top Safety Pick Plus” for 2022, a rating granted to only 128 vehicles tested by the IIHS. The Atlas Cross Sport is not even a standard “Top Safety Pick.”