Next-gen pure electric Volvo XC90 to come with LiDAR technology

KUALA LUMPUR: A few days back, Volvo confirmed that the next-gen XC60 will come out as a fully electric model and now the Swedish car giant unleashed its future plans about the XC90 via a press release. As per that, the successor of the biggest Volvo SUV will be fully electric and will employ LIDAR technology and Artificial Intelligence. It is a part of the company’s mission to convert half of its lineup to electric vehicles by 2025, and a full conversion by 2030.

Developed by Luminar, the LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) tech uses laser pulses to gauge ranges and detect what’s ahead on the road. It is much like SONAR tech but uses light instead of sound for detecting the changes. The SUV will also have an autonomous driving computer system powered by the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin system-on-a-chip as standard. 

By combining these state-of-the-art technologies, Volvo aims to “reduce fatalities and accidents as a whole with this new safety package.”

Håkan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars said in a statement, “Volvo Cars is and always has been a leader in safety. It will now define the next level of car safety. By having this hardware as standard, we can continuously improve safety features over the air and introduce advanced autonomous drive systems, reinforcing our leadership in safety.”

It also confirms that this safety package will be continuously updated via over-the-air updates. “As we improve our safety technology continuously through updates over the air, we expect collisions to become increasingly rare and hope to save more lives,” said Henrik Green, the company’s chief technology officer. 

Unlike the previous-gen technologies which largely relied on warning the driver for potential threats, the new safety tech will increasingly intervene over time as required to prevent collisions, says Volvo.

Beyond the AI computing performance and sensor suite, the next-gen Volvo XC90 will also have new systems for other key functions, including steering and braking. These are expected to allow for unsupervised autonomous driving. 

Volvo announces that the next-gen XC90 Electric will be revealed next year.

Also read: 2021 Volvo S90 facelift: First impression