Volvo has announced that its second generation Scalable Product Architecure (SPA2) vehicles, like the S90 and XC90 will get new self-driving hardware including lidar. The hardware is going to arrive starting with the 2022 Volvo XC90.
Volvo has teamed up with Luminar to provide the lidar sensor that will give the Volvo models full self-driving capability. While the 2022 XC90 will arrive with the necessary tech it needs to drive autonomously, it won’t be able to drive itself until an over-the-air update arrives at a later date.
Once it’s equipped with the software, the Highway Pilot feature that enables fully autonomous highway driving will be activated once it is verified to be safe for individual geographic locations and conditions.
“Autonomous drive has the potential to be one of the most lifesaving technologies in history, if introduced responsibly and safely,” said Henrik Green, chief technology officer at Volvo Cars. “Providing our future cars with the vision they require to make safe decisions is an important step in that direction.”
Volvo says that it is also working with Luminar to see how the hardware can he used for the driver assist features, with the potential for equipping all future SPA2-based cars with a lidar sensor as standard.
