Ready to drive autonomously with LiDAR
It is sometimes said that a car is only as safe as its driver. But at the same time, unfortunately, man is the weakest link. Distraction and tiredness sometimes play tricks on even the best driver. That’s why the new fully electric Volvo EX90 not only has sensors and cameras that scan its surroundings, but these safety systems also keep an eye on the driver. That also makes the EX90 the safest Volvo ever.
You probably know it: after a long, intensive working day you get in the car to go home. Perhaps the night before was just a little too short. Anyway, the chance that you doze off for a while is real. Or you’re as fit as a fiddle, but you stare at the screen of the infotainment system just a little too long to find a nice podcast and you no longer pay attention to the traffic. That can have disastrous consequences. Not if you’re in one Volvo EX90 drives. It recognizes flawlessly whether your attention is slacking; he warns or intervenes. Because Volvo is committed to preventing accidents.
Look at the road thanks to DUS
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a co-driver who always keeps an eye out and alerts you to danger or sees that you are not paying attention to the driving? With the ‘driver understanding system’ (DUS) in the Volvo EX90 you are always assured of that attention. “Our research shows that simply observing what the driver is looking at and how often and for how long his eyes are closed can tell us a lot about the driver’s condition”said Emma Tivesten, Senior Technical Expert, Volvo Cars Safety Center.
Cameras observe the driver
How does this system work? Two cameras monitor the driver’s eye movements and work with a dizzying array of variables. Of course, this was preceded by an endless amount of testing and research. Based on all that data, combined with what the cameras record, the EX90 knows that the driver is not looking at the road enough, for example. Or maybe too much, but not concentrated. In addition, the Volvo EX90 has a capacitive steering wheel that senses whether you still have your hands on the wheel. If you had actually fallen asleep or were unconscious, an increasingly loud warning signal would follow first. If there is no response, the system will park the car safely.
Ready to drive autonomously with LiDAR
But there’s more. Like an invisible shield around the Volvo EX90. This consists of sensors, cameras, radars and LiDAR. The latter abbreviation stands for Light Detection and Ranging. This uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to scan the area up to 250 meters in front of the car. Even in the dark, at highway speed, LiDAR is able to detect a pedestrian or object on the road from a great distance. The technology in the Volvo EX90 is already so far that autonomous driving is possible in the future.
Invisible security shield
The new Volvo EX90 is packed with safety and assistance systems. “We believe the EX90 is the safest Volvo to ever hit the road”says Joachim de Verdier, Head of Safe Vehicles Automation at Volvo Cars. “We combine our understanding of the outside environment with our more detailed understanding of driver attention. When all of our safety systems, sensors, software and computing power come together, they create a pre-emptive shield of safety around you – and you don’t even know it’s there until you need it.”
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl