Semi-autonomous motorway driving
This system aims to take the strain out of those long motorway journeys. It’s available on the next XC90 and will steer, accelerate and brake for you – provided you’re not travelling at more than 120mph!
Current legislation requires drivers to be in control of their cars so you do still have to have your hands gently on the steering wheel. In our experience you could have them off for around five seconds before the system reprimands you.
It’s a bit of an eerie experience to have the steering wheel turning in front of you without touching it, and it’s great to not have to worry about all those tiny little steering corrections you normally make on the motorway.
Next-gen safety systems
Also available in the next Volvo XC90 will be pedestrian detection in darkness, animal detection and road edge/barrier detection.
Volvo already has a system to detect pedestrians in daylight but now they’ve adapted the camera so it works at night. It allows the car to react in less than half-a-second, where a driver would normally take around 1.2 seconds.
It’s the same story for the animal detection system, which can spot large animals like deer and elk.
The road edge/barrier detection system, meanwhile, keeps an eye constantly on where the edge of the road is and will auto steer the car back in to its lane if the driver starts to swerve off it. Depending on the angle of approach it may also apply the brakes before steering back on track.
