In the era of accelerated energy transformation, electric vehicles are becoming the first choice for consumers with an irresistible trend. However, the frequent occurrence of tram fires in recent years has also made many consumers have doubts. According to data released by the Ministry of Emergency Management, 640 new energy vehicle fires occurred in the first quarter of 2022 alone, an increase of 32 percent over the same period last year, with an average of more than 7 cases per day. Every accident will always sound the safety alarm for the industry.
No matter how the industry changes, safety is always the first priority, and its importance always comes before all kinds of marketing gimmicks. As the "overlord of safety" in the era of fuel vehicles, Volvo has set up a new safety benchmark in the era of pure electricity by adhering to safety and innovating and applying many safety technologies that are "bodyguards" to consumers.
On the evening of November 9th, Volvo unveiled its new pure electric flagship SUV-- Volvo EX90 in Stockholm, Sweden. Bookings are expected to begin overseas next fall and delivery will begin in 2024. At the press conference, Jim Rowan, president and CEO of Volvo, introduced many innovative features of the car to users around the world, among which the word safety was frequently mentioned. "apart from representing Volvo's latest research and development in the field of new energy vehicles, this new car is also a new safety benchmark for Volvo in the pure electricity era and is always working towards a 'zero collision' vision," Luo said. "
The strongest lidar super computing power millisecond strain to achieve "zero collision"
From outside to inside, the new Volvo EX90 implements the "safety" concept of the Volvo brand for 95 years and carries many innovative safety functions to protect the safety of users in all directions.
From the outside point of view, the identification of road conditions and unexpected conditions is the basic requirement to avoid accidents. At present, in the perception system, there are mainly two major schools in the industry: visual scheme and multi-fusion scheme. Volvo EX90 adopts the dual fusion scheme of lidar and visual perception, which is relatively mainstream in the automobile industry. The advantage of this scheme is that it has stronger perception.
The more outstanding advantage is that the lidar developed by Luminar on the Volvo EX90 can be called the "ceiling" of the lidar world, with a super penetrating power, a wavelength of up to 1550 nanometers in the industry, a detection distance of up to 500m, and a reflectivity of 250m at 10%. This means that at a speed of 120 km / h, once there is a danger ahead, it can provide 7.5 seconds to take action to avoid an accident. As a result, heavy casualty accidents are expected to be reduced by 20%, and the overall proportion of avoiding vehicle collisions can be increased by up to 9%.
In addition, the Luminar lidar provides industry-leading capabilities with an angle resolution of 0.05° * 0.05°, with a wider and clearer viewing range than other smart cars. In order to better ensure that the vehicle in the rain and snow, haze, night and other special environment to achieve millisecond strain.
Austin Russell, CEO of Luminar, said: "from the beginning, Luminar's strategy has been to get as many people as possible to use this life-saving technology. Our first goal is to focus on achieving a high degree of safety and to provide consumers with self-driving technology through mass production models. The Volvo EX90 is so unique and bold in large part because it uses lidar as a standard for every car, so that everyone can enjoy safety. "
In addition to the high-precision and sensitive sensing system, Volvo EX90's autopilot system is also an industry leader. First, Volvo EX90's autopilot system is equipped with NVIDIA DRIVE Orin, which provides up to 254 TOPS of computing power (trillions of operations per second), allowing the autopilot system to cope with a variety of scenarios. In addition, through the central computing platform and vehicle SOA software architecture, the functions of the next generation models can be fully integrated and iterated quickly, and can be upgraded online through autonomous learning and vehicle-level OTA.
Among luxury car brands, Volvo is one of the few brands with the ability to develop its own ADAS, with 10 years of experience in intelligent driving algorithms. In the future, with the help of lidar and other sensing systems, Volvo can further realize the vision of zero collision.
Driver perceived safety redundant vehicle control gives autopilot a "double insurance"
The emergence of autopilot technology liberates drivers to a certain extent and reduces the mental pressure when driving, but it will also reduce people's vigilance, resulting in safety risks. As the book Autopilot says: once you see that technology works, people quickly trust it. As a result, when people are encouraged to hand over their driving rights to enjoy relaxation, it is difficult for them to re-engage in driving tasks.
Therefore, with safety as its creed, Volvo focuses on the state of the driver. In order to avoid safety accidents caused by driver distraction as much as possible, Volvo EX90 is equipped with a DUS driver perception system with dual cameras in the car. The system consists of a capacitive steering wheel and two cameras, which can obtain driver status information and integrate with intelligent driving algorithm to achieve fatigue detection, distraction early warning, active takeover and other functions.
For example, when it is detected that the driver's attention is no longer focused on driving, the system gives a slight warning and gradually strengthens it if the driver does not take any measures. When a special situation is detected, such as the driver falling asleep while driving or a sudden illness, the system will keep the vehicle out of danger by slowing down, keeping the lane or even stopping, and call for help.
It is worth mentioning that the Volvo EX90 is also the first consumer-oriented model with a safety redundant vehicle control system, and is managed by a single Orin chip. The safety redundant vehicle control system can take over the vehicle when the autopilot fails, and take the initiative to take measures to reduce the risk, such as brake parking, emergency avoidance, etc., to protect the whole journey and protect the safety of drivers and passengers.
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In many fire accidents of new energy vehicles, aging battery components and battery short circuit are common causes. Only by grasping the battery safety problems can we take precautions. Volvo is well aware of the importance of battery safety. Among luxury brands, Volvo is the only one to develop its own battery management system. Volvo EX90 is equipped with a full-stack self-developed BMS system, which can prevent battery overcharge, direct open circuit design, high-voltage rapid power off after collision and other problems. It can also monitor the battery thermal out of control continuously for 7X24 hours to protect the safety of users. In addition, the battery protection cover of Volvo EX90 adopts ultra-high strength steel protection material to effectively alleviate the damage caused by impact, while the intelligent fuse can also quickly trigger the power outage device to ensure the safety of electric vehicle power battery.
In the 95 years since the birth of the brand, "safety" has long been internalized into the bones and genes of the Volvo brand. Volvo's high sensitivity to safety drives Volvo to develop world-changing safety technologies such as integrated cage body, three-point seat belts, traffic accident research team, backward child safety seats, side impact protection system (SIPS), roll protection system (ROPS), "nose team" and City Safety urban safety system.
In the era of pure electricity, Volvo still adheres to the background of "safety" and sets up a new safety benchmark for the industry with low-key and exquisite cutting-edge technology.