Author: Wang Xuan

On the evening of November 9th, Volvo released its most heavyweight car model of the year, the EX90. At the press conference, we also heard the familiar keyword – safety. However, this time the content is different from usual. If following the past logic, scenes including collision, fire, water submersion, and building crash would appear immediately after “safety,” followed by user endorsement as the ending, which is Volvo’s typical story loop.

However, this time, the storytelling of safety is done through the use of lidar, cameras, high computational platform, and algorithms. After the EX90, we should also realize that the “traditional” Volvo defined by stereotypes has gradually gone.

From Passive Safety to Active Safety

As for safety, the goal of Volvo EX90 is to achieve “zero collisions,” which must be supported by strong active safety capabilities.

Regarding intelligent driving hardware, Volvo EX90 includes five body radars, eight cameras, 16 ultrasonic sensors, and a lidar developed by Luminar. The latter can perceive stationary black tires up to 120 meters ahead or pedestrians up to 250 meters away. The intelligent driving computation platform is the NVIDIA DRIVE Orin chip, with a total computing power of 254 TOPS.

The brand new native pure electric platform developed by Volvo supports all software and hardware operations. With the new central computing platform and vehicle-level SOA software architecture, the functions on the Volvo EX90 model can be fully integrated and quickly iterated, and can be upgraded through autonomous learning and whole-vehicle OTA online updates.

The function with the closest association with active safety is the AEB active braking system. In the past, AEB faced many challenges. Before lidar was introduced, millimeter-wave radar and cameras were sensors that intelligent driving systems heavily relied on, but both have their shortages.It is difficult for cameras to grasp the actual distance between objects and vehicles, and they can also make errors in judging certain images, such as mistaking shadows under bridges for objects and taking emergency braking measures. On the other hand, the greatest weakness of millimeter-wave radars is their difficulty in obtaining information about stationary objects, and obtaining information at a small-angle with sound waves. Therefore, they are often combined with forward radars.

The introduction of LiDAR can significantly improve vehicle’s intelligent driving ability and improve the performance of active safety. It can accurately estimate the shape and size of objects, as well as the size of speed bumps and potholes on the road. A wider monitoring angle and longer distance can help to detect objects that may cause dangerous situations ahead earlier. Compared to cameras, LiDAR is not limited by illumination conditions.

Even on the highway at night, the LiDAR on the Volvo EX90 can accurately detect objects within a certain range. The detection distance of 250 meters means that even if driving at speeds up to 120 kilometers per hour, there is still up to 7.5 seconds to take action to avoid collisions.

It is not difficult to see that Volvo’s biggest change is from focusing on passive safety to active safety. It can become the European car manufacturer that fastest embraces intelligence and combines innate advantages and cutting-edge technology in its brand background, which cannot be separated from the sustained investment in the field of intelligent driving over the years.

Volvo is one of the few traditional car manufacturers with independent research and development ability for advanced ADAS auxiliary driving systems. As early as 2015, Volvo began to cooperate with world-class suppliers of autonomous driving to develop auxiliary driving systems, and also has an autonomous driving software development company, Zenseact. Currently, Zenseact has started to provide independent software algorithms for Volvo’s new models.# Volvo XC90 is Capable of Autonomous Driving

From its hardware layout, the current Volvo XC90 has the ability to support autonomous driving. Volvo also stated that once fully validated and approved by all necessary regulatory agencies, the XC90 can provide autonomous driving at speeds up to 60 km/h in limited conditions, such as in urban highways with front vehicle guidance and partitions to separate obstacles under good weather conditions.

Twin “Eyes” in the Cabin Takes Care of You

In addition to active safety, Volvo provides a “double insurance” system to users driving the XC90 which consists of 1 capacitive steering wheel and 2 cameras in the Driver Perception System (DPS).

The Driver Perception System captures signals of the driver’s status through two cameras, observing the direction of the driver’s gaze and other situations. Compared to a single camera, dual cameras can more accurately judge the driver’s status. Smaller users no longer have to worry about triggering the fatigue detection system by mistake.

The dual-camera system can detect the driver’s gaze deviation from the road by measuring the time the driver observes the front road (such as the attention time drops from 80% to 60%) and combining it with environmental changes, thereby judging whether the driver is distracted.

The capacitive steering wheel can sense whether the driver has released the hand and judge whether the driving status is stable, in case the user becomes overly distracted after activating the driving assistance function.

Of course, in the era of intelligentization, with more and more applications on the vehicle’s end, the probability of users being distracted while driving is also increasing. For the human-machine interaction in driving scenarios, Volvo also brings new considerations.

Twin Screens in the Cabin

The cabin of the XC90 is equipped with two screens, with the instrument panel showing driving information and the 14.5-inch central control screen displaying richer content and the vehicle setting control interface. The screens work in coordination to provide suitable information to users at suitable times and locations. The cabin is equipped with an 8155 cockpit chip.## EX90 Customized Scene Bar

The EX90 is equipped with a customized scene bar designed specifically for users, which provides an adapted interaction interface according to the user’s different driving scenes.

For example, when the user gets into the car, they will see a prominent personalized welcome message on the screen; When the driving starts, the main screen information will be replaced with the required main information for driving, such as navigation, media, phone and vehicle control. This function allows users to conveniently obtain the key information they need in specific scenarios.

Information overload is a disadvantage brought to cars by the intelligent era. Most car companies want to stuff all information into the main interface of the car, causing the central control screen, which is not large in size, to be divided into countless small squares, such as navigation, air conditioning, weather, music, and applications, and even occasional pop-up messages to disturb the driver.

Perhaps these product managers have not considered whether users really need these messages, but displaying them in front of users can at least demonstrate their usefulness in intelligent car technology.

Volvo’s approach is to make driving more pure and simple, simplifying complexity by concealing information that does not belong in the driving scenario on a deeper interface.

Positioning, opponents, and internal consumption

The Volvo EX90 is based on the SPA 2 platform, with a body size of 5037mm * 2039mm * 1747mm. Equipped with a 111-degree battery pack and front and rear permanent magnet motors, it is marked as two versions, Standard and Performance, depending on the output power of the motor. The Standard version provides a maximum output power of 300kW, while the Performance version provides a maximum output power of 380kW and a torque output of 910N·m. The WLTP working condition endurance mileage is 600 kilometers.

From the name, we can see that the positioning of the EX90 is similar to the XC90. At the same time, in some design elements, we can also see the shadow of the Volvo Concept Recharge, especially in the front face, headlights, and taillights. Moreover, this time the new EX90 also has technological configurations in terms of exterior design.The Thor’s Hammer headlight is a classic design element of Volvo products. In the EX90, Volvo presents a new version of the Thor’s Hammer that is transformable. It is a dot-matrix LED daytime running light in normal mode, while the light groups will be separated and the hidden headlight will be revealed at night. The combination of the light groups reduces the overall area of the light module, and combined with the grille-free design, the front face becomes more concise.

In the large SUV market, traditional luxury brand products have also been continuously introduced in the past year, such as BMW’s iX, Mercedes EQE SUV, and others. They face opponents such as Cadillac LYRIQ and Roewe iDream. Compared with them, Volvo’s advantage lies in its ability to cater to the intelligent needs of the Chinese market.

Under the renderings of new energy vehicle companies, the two major product points of intelligent driving assistance and intelligent cockpit have become the key considerations for consumers in the car purchase process. On this basis, Volvo EX90 has inherent advantages.

It is not difficult to notice that several new cars recently unveiled under Geely’s brands, including Volvo EX90, Polestar 3, and Lotus Eletre, have similar positioning and possible price ranges. Will they have conflicts with each other?

I personally don’t think so, because the three products have different tendencies in subdivision. Lotus Eletre is the ultimate sports car, Polestar 3 is a radical avant-garde, while the Volvo EX90 still gives the familiar brand culture, with a restrained sense of luxury, enthusiastic embrace of technology, and the ultimate pursuit of safety.

In fact, in this article, the two most frequently mentioned keywords are “passive” and “active”. It is extremely difficult for traditional car companies to step out of their comfort zone and adapt to new environments. Some people change passively and thus lose their most shining qualities in going with the flow.

Volvo is a car company that actively embraces the new era. ‘Safety’ is still their shining point, but now they have to tell a story, not about how to save users’ lives in the seemingly hopeless abyss, but about how to keep the abyss away from them using technology. It is worth looking forward to Volvo’s active transformation towards electrification and intelligence.

战国英雄列传

燕昭王

燕昭王，名张夫人，姓田，三川之孙也。生于燕都，十五岁时，其父被害，昭王亦被迫逃亡他国。

后来，在赵国得到了赵惠文王的庇护，并成为了赵国的客卿，为赵国出谋划策，屡建奇功，后来又为燕国效力，重回祖宗的宝座。

昭王在位期间，加强了燕国的防御，扩大了燕国的势力范围，并且积极推行改革开放政策，兴修水利、治理河道，发展经济，推广学术，使燕国的经济和文化迅速发展。

最后，燕昭王在位四十年后去世，在位期间为燕国做出了不可磨灭的贡献。

赵盾

赵盾是战国时期赵国的一位军事将领，后被封为上卿。

赵盾出生于军人世家，年轻时即表现出非凡的军事才华。在秦国和齐国之间的战争中，赵盾曾多次立下赫赫功勋，成为赵国军队中的一支重要力量。

赵盾被封为上卿之后，一心为赵国效力，亲率部队多次参加战争，屡立战功。他还大力推行经济和文化建设，积极发展赵国经济和文化。

最终，赵盾在战争中因伤去世，但他的功绩却流芳百世，成为赵国的英雄。

Biography of Heroes in the Warring States Period

King Zhao of Yan

King Zhao of Yan, whose given name was Zhang Furun and surname was Tian, was the grandson of San Chuan. He was born in the capital of Yan, but his father was murdered when he was 15 years old. Hence, King Zhao was forced to flee to other countries.

Later on, he sought refuge in the state of Zhao and became a guest official, providing advice and strategies for Zhao’s development. He achieved remarkable feats and was later entrusted by Yan to help them regain the throne of their ancestors.

During his reign, King Zhao strengthened Yan’s defense, expanded Yan’s territory, and actively implemented reform and opening-up policies, including the development of water conservancy and economic prosperity, as well as promotion of academic knowledge. This caused the rapid development of Yan’s economy and culture.

Ultimately, King Zhao passed away after 40 years of reigning, but his invaluable contributions during his reign for Yan were indelible.

Zhao Dun

Zhao Dun is a military general in the state of Zhao during the Warring States Period and was later named as an upper official.

Born in a family of military men, Zhao Dun showed extraordinary military talents when he was young. In the war between Qin and Qi, he earned numerous merits, becoming an important force in the Zhao army.

After being named an upper official, Zhao Dun devoted himself entirely to the service of the state, leading his army several times in battles and achieved great feats. He also vigorously promoted economic and cultural development, contributing significantly to the progress of Zhao’s economy and culture.

Eventually, Zhao Dun passed away due to wounds received in battle, but his achievements were remembered throughout history, making him a hero of Zhao.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.