Safety and the unmistakably Swedish automotive brand Volvo go together like pickled herring and crisp-breads, Ikea and affordable book shelves, ABBA and the Eurovision Song Contest. The thematic thread that runs through all of this stuff is the word standard and the latest model to join the line-up – the long-awaited, pure electric seven-seat EX90 – carries on the tradition by becoming the world’s first global consumer vehicle to include Lidar technology across the entire line-up.
From an article in Tech Radar by Leon Poultney.
After all, the Scandi company basically invented the modern seatbelt, with its patented three-point safety system fitted as standard on all Volvo cars as early as 1959 – the first seat belt federal law in the US didn’t pass util 1968.
Fast forward a few decades and its City Safety suite of systems, which included early radar and camera technologies, essentially paved the way for the autonomous emergency braking systems we now see in pretty much every modern vehicle.
It is the reason there is a slightly awkward looking lump above the windscreen of the latest EV that, from certain angles at least, makes the EX90 look a little bit like a taxi. Volvo’s design team will flip its collective lids over that statement, but there’s no getting away from it.
However, Volvo’s most expensive vehicle to date (it will cost £100,555 in the UK and $90,640 in the US) leverages this technology for far more than just advanced levels of autonomous driving, where it is typically found.
Instead, the system bombards its next-gen onboard super computers with data so its equally advanced safety tech performs better and, more importantly, should prove far less annoying to live with.
The Volvo EX90 was tipped to be one of the first premium, electric seven-seat SUVs to go on sale globally, but delays due to numerous software headaches meant that the title was taken by the Kia EV9 – also the priciest model that the South Korean company has ever sold.
Nonetheless, Volvo’s big SUV is impressive: a 400V lithium-ion battery with 111kWh capacity feeds dual motors that deliver up to 517hp and 910Nm in the range-topping Twin Motor Performance models. An electric range of 374 miles is being touted by the manufacturer.
For the complete article on the first global consumer vehicle line-up with lidar CLICK HERE.
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