Volvo's electric cars will start warning each other about road hazards
Volvo has announced a new safety feature for three of its EV models that lets the cars communicate directly with one another to warn about animals, pedestrians and other hazards ahead. The system relies on vehicle-to-vehicle data sharing rather than crowdsourced reports used by typical navigation apps.
Volvo has announced it is rolling out a new connected safety feature across three of its electric vehicle models — the EX90, ES90 and EX60. Unlike widely used navigation tools such as Google Maps or Waze, which rely on reports submitted by users, Volvo's system is built around direct communication between its own vehicles.
How the system works
The feature draws on data collected from Volvo's fleet of passenger vehicles across Europe, the US and Canada. Sensors and cameras built into the cars are calibrated to detect specific risks on the road. When a Volvo vehicle identifies a hazard, it automatically records the location and transmits the information to Volvo's servers. That alert is then pushed out to other Volvo vehicles traveling along the same stretch of road.
For the system to work, a car must be connected to the cloud and the relevant road must exist within Volvo's map database. According to the company, its newer electric vehicles have enough onboard computing power to process these alerts in real time.
Four categories of hazards
Volvo says the new alerts will cover four types of hazards: large animals, vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists, roadwork, and accidents. The company noted that roughly one million vehicles currently on the road are already equipped with its connected safety alert capability. Volvo also shares this hazard data beyond its own customer base, distributing it to traffic management centers and other vehicle manufacturers.
Volvo has been using connected-vehicle technology for hazard warnings since 2016. That cloud-based system, developed together with Ericsson, has previously alerted drivers to slippery road conditions using data from steering, braking and acceleration sensors, and has notified nearby vehicles when another car activates its hazard lights.
Separately, Volvo said the EX90 will gain Spatial Audio support for Apple CarPlay users, aimed at delivering a more immersive, multi-dimensional sound experience inside the cabin.
