Volvo Cars has officially announced its upcoming all-electric flagship SUV will wear the EX90 badge, promising the new model will be the safest Volvo yet.
Marking the start of a fresh era at Volvo Cars, the forthcoming EX90 will take the Swedish firm’s legacy of safety, quality and innovation firmly into the future.
The EX90 will boast one of the most advanced sensor sets on the market. A Volvo-unique suite of eight cameras, five radars, 16 ultrasonic sensors and a cutting-edge Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensor will combine with in-house developed software, the vehicle’s core computing power and a new real-time interior sensing system to move the Scandinavian firm a step closer to its vision of a future with zero collisions.
“We believe the EX90 to be the safest Volvo car to ever hit the road,” says Joachim de Verdier, head of Safe Vehicle Automation at Volvo Cars. “We are fusing our understanding of the outside environment with our more detailed understanding of driver attention. When all our safety systems, sensors, software and computing power come together, they create a preventative shield of safety around you – and you won’t even know it’s there until you need it.”
Embedded in the EX90’s roofline, the class-leading LiDAR sensor can detect pedestrians at up to 250-metre distances and something as small and dark as a tyre on a black road 120 metres ahead – all while travelling at highway speeds.
The new “driver understanding system”, meanwhile, uses two cameras in the cabin to observe the driver’s eye-gaze patterns and pick up early signals that indicate the driver may not be at their best. By measuring how much of the time the driver looks at the road ahead (allowing for natural variations), it understands when the driver’s eyes, and perhaps therefore mind, are focused somewhere other than on driving.
The capacitive steering wheel also plays a role, sensing if the driver lets go of the wheel and monitoring the stability of the steering input. By using patented algorithms for real-time sensing of gaze patterns and steering behavior, the car will be able to take appropriate action to help the driver when needed, from sounding a simple warning signal to even safely stopping at the side of the road, alerting other road users with its hazard lights.
Ultimately, using these new sensor systems (inside and out), the vehicle will not only be able to step in and assist the driver, it will also have a better understanding of when it’s needed and how to assist in the best possible way.
More details of Volvo’s new all-electric flagship EX90 will be released in the coming weeks before the global reveal takes place on 9 November 2022.
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