Volvo Cars intends to install laser sensors on all its future models in an effort to reduce serious accidents involving its vehicles by 20%. With this, the automaker will become the first to launch the technology across its entire fleet.
The next electric version of the XC-90 SUV, the company’s flagship model, will feature a “liDAR” sensor that will allow you to see “a black tire on a black road 120 meters ahead, or a pedestrian 250 meters ahead”. said Jim Rowan, president of Volvo.
Using the system will reduce collisions by 9% and fatal or injury-causing accidents by 20%, Rowan said.
Rivals, including Mercedes-Benz and BMW, have announced plans to use “liDAR” sensors in some models as automakers look to incorporate additional features into their cars to help them differentiate themselves in the competitive premium segment.
While “liDAR” systems are common in self-driving vehicles, few car manufacturers equip regular street cars with them, in part because of cost.
The use of safety sensors will become more common in this segment mainly due to the European Union’s requirements that all cars have the capability of emergency braking if they detect an object stopped in front.
Volvo, the first automaker to install three-point seat belts in the 1950s, has been striving to prevent any fatal accidents involving its vehicles.
Its new safety setup will also monitor drivers inside the vehicle, detecting if they are about to fall asleep, or sensing changes in breathing patterns that could mean the car needs to stop, an improvement over a previous eye-tracking system that company demonstrated in 2019.
Rowan said the company had not yet decided whether to license the new technology to other automakers, a move that would echo its decision to freely offer its seat belt patents to other companies in the last century.
As automakers increasingly install collision avoidance features into their latest models, the industry is debating which types of sensors offer greater insight at a reasonable price.
Tesla president Elon Musk has long championed technologies that use only cameras, pointing to the fact that people drive using their eyes.
Volvo cars will also have cameras and radar systems, but using “liDAR” allows the car to see even in darkness, Rowan said.
“With the headlight on, the driver has a visual range of maybe 60 meters, and our ‘liDAR’ will see 250 meters ahead in the dark,” he said.
“That becomes really important, by offering extra time [de reação] at least three or four seconds. For night use, a camera simply won’t have that technology.”
He also said that the sensor builds an image faster, because “liDAR” travels at the speed of light, while radar only travels at the speed of sound.
While the company is expected to acquire its “liDAR” sensors from Luminar, a company in which Volvo has invested, it was the automaker that developed the software to process the images, drawing on a team of hundreds of professionals, Rowan said.
Translation by Paulo Migliacci
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