However, there is one glaring problem with the exterior: the lidar hump at the top of the windshield. Volvo knows this is a problem and I know it for two reasons. First, if you look at the many official press images of the car, you’ll see plenty of shots of the EX90 from almost every possible angle except profile. I found a profile photo, but the car is so far back that the hump is small, which is no doubt intentional. Up close it looks like an unlit taxi sign. Secondly, I asked a Volvo designer at the brand’s launch if the team was having trouble dealing with the hump as we looked at it protruding from the roofline, and they reluctantly confirmed that it was.
Still, that lidar increases the car’s already formidable safety. The company claims that this is the safest Volvo ever created, as the sensor suite is capable of creating a complete image of the world around the car, detecting even small objects hundreds of meters away, whether day or night. evening.
Although this technology makes the EX90 capable of driving autonomously on the road, Volvo has not activated this capability yet, and Thomas Broberg, Volvo’s senior technical safety advisor, will not say when it will do so. “It’s more about what the car shouldn’t do than what it will do,” Broberg tells me. He adds that Volvo needs more time to test its Level 3 autonomous driving technology, but then confesses that the company has been testing this system, or versions of it, for years. Early next year the EX90 will apparently enable supervised driving 2.5, but until then all drivers will only collect data for Volvo.
One last important point about the lidar hump. At the launch, I spoke with the representative of Luminar, the company that makes this unsightly autonomous driving component. He tells me that the next generation of technology is half the size and that Luminar is working on putting it on a windshield instead of sitting proudly on top. This sounds much better and you can expect to see it in cars in 2026 or 2027. Unfortunately, Volvo did not confirm if it was going to upgrade the EX90 to this upcoming lump-free lidar. Let’s hope so.
luxury interior
Speaking of radar, there’s one inside the EX90 too. It’s to prevent children or dogs from being left inside by mistake, as well as all the driver assistance and monitoring systems you’d expect from a Volvo. This is a very good thing, because such is the luxurious nature of the EX90’s interior (the convincing Nordico “leather” upholstery is made from second-hand plastic and sustainable pine oil) that you won’t want to leave pets and children unattended. in the ruin the optional captain’s chairs in the middle row or the cavernous trunk, which has a very helpful “Will this fit?” Pictorial chart, including a washing machine, chairs, skis and a refrigerator, allows you to see what things can fit in the acres of back space.