Electric Volvo XC90 will boast lidar, AI-driven safety technology
The autonomous driving computer will grow smarter over time via over-the-air updates, the company said.
Lidar will help the SUV "see."
Volvo's set to continue its electric march with a new XC90 SUV, ready for a reveal next year. However, on Thursday, Volvo said the electric SUV will boast advanced safety and autonomous driving technology. The tech package will include Luminar-developed lidar and NVIDIA's Drive Orin system-on-a-chip to help enable autonomous driving features.
Volvo didn't make any explicit claims surrounding how advanced the autonomous tech will be, though it said this system will enable artificial intelligence. The AI will grow smarter over time with over-the-air updates, it said, with a goal of reducing crash fatalities and wrecks that often lead to serious injuries. It's a little vague for now, but Volvo promises the tech will rely less on warnings, and actually intervene more if it senses a collision.
The brand further noted it will bake in redundancies for the next-generation XC90 in anticipation completely autonomous driving will one day come to the SUV. Backup systems for steering, braking and more will be part of the technology package for "safe, unsupervised autonomous driving once available."
The company plans to share more details about these new systems next week, but we'll get an encompassing look at everything tied together when the XC90's ready for public viewing in 2022.
