Volvo gives 4-year-old girl control of a $160,000 18-ton truck in wild test to prove it's completely unbreakable

Volvo has given a 4-year-old girl control of an 18-ton truck and basically told her to see what happens.

The little girl, named Sophie, was handed a remote control and sent a Volvo FMX through a construction site in one of the company’s most outrageous truck tests.

The truck was deliberately subjected to rough terrain, steep slopes, and even a full 360-degree roll. And somehow, this giant 18-ton machine (and Sophie) came out remarkably unfazed.

Why Volvo gave a 4-year-old girl control of an 18-ton truck

From the company that brought you a hamster driving an 18-ton truck, Volvo handing over the controls to a 4-year-old girl seems almost tame in comparison.

The stunt was part of Volvo Trucks’ ‘Look Who’s Driving’ Live Test video series, which was designed to show just how much punishment the FMX could take.

Rather than putting a professional test driver behind the wheel, the truck brand decided that a 4-year-old girl would make a much better stress test.

Sophie wasn’t actually sitting inside the truck, of course.

She controlled the FMX truck remotely as it lumbered around a construction area, meaning she could send the massive truck wherever she wanted without being anywhere near the danger.

That turned out to be a surprisingly effective way of testing it.

The FMX was an 8×6 all-wheel-drive truck producing 540 horsepower, and the brand had equipped it with several features designed specifically for working in difficult conditions.

One of the most important was Automatic Traction Control, which could automatically engage all-wheel drive when extra traction was required.

Volvo said this helped the truck keep moving on steep and soft surfaces while also reducing unnecessary wear and fuel consumption.

The truck also had 30 cm of ground clearance, helping protect components like the suspension and brake discs when driving across rough terrain.

But Sophie wasn’t exactly gentle with it, and she completed the obstacle course cackling with glee.

It survived a full 360-degree roll

At one point, the remotely controlled truck climbed a steep, slope before losing its footing and rolling all the way down, and when we say ‘rolling,’ we really mean rolling.

The FMX completed a full 360-degree roll during the test, putting its reinforced construction to an extreme test that most trucks would probably prefer to avoid.

The truck had reinforced front corners made from 3 mm high-grade steel, while a 3 mm steel skid plate underneath was designed to withstand at least five tons of pressure.

Even the cab was engineered with extreme situations in mind: Volvo’s ‘body in white’ cabin structure was designed to help protect the driver if the truck ended up on its side.

There was also protection against one of the less dramatic but equally important hazards of construction work: water.

Sensitive components were sealed and positioned to keep dirt and water away from them, allowing the Volvo truck to operate in wet and muddy environments.

The brand’s aim was to demonstrate how the truck could cope with the sort of abuse it might encounter on a construction site.

And giving the controls to an unpredictable 4-year-old with a mischievous grin on her face certainly made sure the truck didn’t get an easy ride.

Sophie may have been one of Volvo’s youngest-ever test drivers, but the FMX was the one that really had something to prove.

After being driven into rough terrain, thrown down a slope and sent into a complete 360-degree roll, the 18-ton truck demonstrated exactly why heavy-duty construction vehicles are built differently from ordinary road vehicles.

Despite ending up with a broken windscreen and a few dents, the FMX carried on trucking, despite Sophie’s best destruction efforts.