If you were hoping to drive one soon, it's been delayed.
After some delays earlier this year, the Volvo EX90 was pushed back to early 2024, but according to an earnings call last Thursday, Volvo Cars CEO Jim Rowan announced that production was going to be pushed back another half a year to late 2024, citing “complexity of the software code” with the brand's new LiDAR system. Volvo wants this to be the world's safest SUV when it debuts, and with the LiDAR system being such a crucial part of that, the company doesn't want to take any risks by rushing production.
“The Volvo EX90 is our vision of a large family SUV in the electric age,” said CEO Jim Rowan in the past. “Born electric and software-defined, it demonstrates what future Volvo cars will stand for in terms of safety, tech, sustainability, design, and creating a more personal experience for every customer.”
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Developed in conjunction with Luminar Technologies, the autonomous system is then powered by the Nvidia Drive Orin system-on-a-chip and uses LiDAR to create a real-time 360-degree view of the surroundings with the help of cameras, radars, and ultrasonic sensors. The system is apparently good enough to detect pedestrians up to 820 feet away, but for all this to work well together, Volvo engineers need to make sure everything is integrated seamlessly.
“We're writing a lot of [the] software ourselves,” Rowan said during the call. “We wanted to make sure that the first time we put LiDAR into our safety stack … it operates in the way it should.”
As the first Volvo to debut with the technology, the company wants it to be as ready as possible because, down the line, it will be prepared for full-blown autonomous driving thanks to the preparation made now. Volvo, a pioneer in safety, knows a thing or two about building safe vehicles, so when it says it needs more time to get something right, we're inclined to believe them.
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You must also remember that the vehicle won't hide the tech behind subscriptions and will make it standard on every EX90, unique in an industry where other automakers charge thousands of dollars for the same thing. “You don't have an option package for airbags. You don't have an option package for seat belts,” he said. “Why should you have an option package for lifesaving technology?”
Despite the delays, the company still believes this will be the brand's best-selling vehicle when it debuts. It's looking good too, as earlier this year the company was forced to close order books due to high demand. Although the vehicle may not arrive until the third quarter of 2024 now, if the company can keep interest high, we have no doubt it will be a serious contender when it hits the market.
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Keyword: Volvo EX90 Suffers Another Major Setback