A New Era of Safety: The Fully-Electric EX90

Volvo continues to innovate their safety standards, to eventually reach their ultimate goal of zero injuries and fatalities within Volvo vehicles during an accident. 

Although most of us practice safe driving, there are times when we become distracted, tired, or even stressed. No matter what, these factors can effect the way you drive, and may end up causing an accident. How can Volvo help you when you start to feel this way? With the EX90, Volvo takes the extra step of improving the way their vehicles understand a driver's state.

“Our research shows that by simply observing where the driver is looking and how often and for how long their eyes are closed, we can tell a lot about the state of the driver,” said Emma Tivesten, Senior Technical Expert, Volvo Cars Safety Center.

LiDAR, also known as, "Light Detection and Ranging", is a " remote sensing program that uses light  to measure ranges with high precision". LiDAR is designed to be so accurate that it can detect even the tiniest movements at a "sub-millimeter scale". It covers the entire interior of the car, including the trunk. In terms of gaze-tracking, LiDAR uses two cameras located on the drivers side that is able to detect the driver’s eye-gaze patterns, measuring the state of the driver.  For example, by measuring how much of the time the driver looks at the road ahead, it understands when the driver’s eyes, and perhaps therefore mind, are focused somewhere other than on driving. If the drivers eyes become heavy, and more closed, LiDAR knows that they are becoming sleepy, or maybe even under the influence.

With real time sensing of the driver's gaze pattern, the vehicle is able to take appropriate action when needed. The steering wheel senses if the driver lets go, thus monitoring the steering input. The vehicle will give a warning signal that grows in volume if needed. If the driver does not respond to the warning signal, the car will stop safely, on the side of the road, and proceed to flash its hazard lights to alert other drivers. 

 LiDAR also alerts you if you have left someone in the vehicle without noticing. To notify you when you need it, the best time to signal the potential presence of family members left inside the car is when you attempt to lock the car. Whenever you try and lock the car, LiDAR will activate and determine whether or not your vehicle is empty of people or pets because allowing it to be locked. US government statistics show that " since 1998, more than 900 children in the US have died after being left in hot cars." Heartbreakingly, a majority of hot car deaths occur because someone forgot that their child was in the car at the time." Volvo wants to make sure that no one gets left behind, and hopefully decrease the amount of people and pets left in hot vehicles. 

LiDAR is also able to track up to 250-metre distances, including small or dark objects, all while traveling at highway speeds. 

Through research, Volvo indicates that LiDAR will help reduce accidents by about 20%, and over all crash avoidance by up to 9%. 

The whole purpose behind our innovation of safety technology is not only to help reach our goal of zero fatalities or injuries in our vehicles, but to inspire others to keep "Safety in Mind". By creating the EX90, Volvo introduces added safety and a vehicle that can "keep track of more potential hazards than we ever have before, both on the outside and inside". 

Within the next couple of weeks, we will learn more updates about the EX90. Make sure to come back for more information when we have it!