New electric Volvo XC90 CONFIRMED for 2022 – with advanced LiDAR as standard

Volvo confirms the arrival of a new electric Volvo XC90 in 2022, which will get advanced LiDAR and driver-assist functions as standard.

It’s no secret that Volvo is planning to replace the range-topping XC90 next year, and no secret it’ll be an electric XC90. 

But now that’s been officially confirmed by Volvo as they start the run-up to the new XC90 by detailing the advanced LiDAR and driver assist technology which will be built-in, as we reported last year.

Beyond confirmation of the electric XC90’s arrival next year – on the new SPA2 Platform – Volvo has revealed that every XC90 will come with LiDAR to enhance its self-driving abilities, complete with integrated sensors from Luminar.

LiDAR uses light waves instead of radar to detect objects and is a crucial move if we’re ever going to see true self-driving cars, and the new LiDAR sensors in the new XC90 will be managed by the Nvidia Drive Orin chip and will be hardware-ready for functions like steering and braking as soon as the tech, and the law, allows unsupervised autonomous driving.

Volvo says the safety tech will improve over time as the systems ‘learn’ and OTA updates improve, making them more capable beyond motorway driving.

Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo CEO, said:

Volvo Cars is, and always has been, a leader in safety. It will now define the next level of car safety.

By having this hardware as standard, we can continuously improve safety features over the air and introduce advanced autonomous drive systems, reinforcing our leadership in safety.