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Volvo's electric XC90 SUV to include lidar as standard equipment next year

DETROIT — Volvo Cars plans to make lidar sensors standard equipment in a new generation of its XC90 SUV next year as part of a strategy to deploy more advanced safety and automated driving technology that relies on precise images of the world around the vehicle. The decision by Volvo Cars to fold lidar sensors into the base price of its vehicle is a bet that customers will pay for the additional capability. It has been called a "watershed moment" by some in the industry. The Swedish brand, owned by China's Geely group, is taking a sharply different road from rival Tesla Inc, which has shunned lidar and radar and is focusing on just cameras and software for its automated driving systems. Self-driving car sensor startup Luminar Technologies Inc will supply Volvo Cars with its Iris lidar and Sentinel software in combination with software from Volvo in the electric XC90 SUV that will be built in South Carolina and go on sale in 2022, the companies said. The new technologies are designed to address traffic situations that often result in severe injuries and fatalities. Over time, the technology will become more capable and will increasingly intervene to prevent collisions, the companies said. "By having this hardware as standard, we can continuously improve safety features over the air and introduce advanced autonomous drive systems," Volvo Cars Chief Executive Hakan Samuelsson said in a statement. Lidar sensors, which use laser light pulses to render precise images of the environment around the car, are seen as essential by many automakers to enable obstacle detection and avoidance in advanced driving assistance systems and eventually in fully automated vehicles. Complete sensor set on on electric successor to XC90 Until now, lidar has been too costly for automakers to implement as anything other than an option that costs extra. Luminar CEO Austin Russell said the pricing for its lidar is on the order of $1,000 per unit. Volvo Cars' chief technology officer, Henrik Green, said cost is not the focus for the Swedish auto brand. While the price of the technology will come down over time as volumes grow, the rollout will accelerate use of automated services that the company can charge for. Green said subsequent vehicles will add the lidar package as standard, and that this continues Volvo Cars' history of being first to standardize many safety features, including three-point seat belts and side-impact airbags.

2020 Volvo S60 T8 Long-Term Review Wrap-Up | Final verdict

Twelve months of motoring in the 2020 Volvo S60 T8 went by quickly. Our time in Volvo’s sharp, plug-in hybrid sedan is over, and itÂ’s time for a final verdict. The S60 saw two entirely different worlds in its time with us. We took delivery in normal days — you know, pre-global pandemic — but most of its tenure here was in a Covid-19 world. That being the case, it didnÂ’t get out and travel the country as much as our long-term test vehicles normally do. Prior to getting locked down, our S60 took trips to Chicago, Buffalo, the northern reaches of Michigan and elsewhere in the region. Even once its extended driveway sessions began, we snuck it away once to the East Coast for a quick back-and-forth summer trip. We limited our car swaps to once a month in an effort to stay away from each other on staff and keep each other safe. That meant that each of us got to spend longer stints than usual in the driverÂ’s seat — our normal routine wouldnÂ’t have encouraged this behavior pre-coronavirus. It was more like a true ownership experience, which is exactly what we aim to convey with long-term tests. We plugged it in every night, utilized the Volvo smartphone app to track it and integrated the car more fully into our lives. The odometer reading sat at 16,866 miles in the end. A great number of those miles were done under electric power, thanks to the carÂ’s 22-mile electric range when fully charged — our range testing saw it meet or exceed that figure if driven with a light foot.  And since the car was sitting at home so often, it was working with a full charge in most circumstances. Long highway trips saw us match the carÂ’s combined mpg rating of 30 mpg. Most fill-ups would return a much higher effective mpg number, though, as all the electric motoring helps it along. Folks with shorter commutes should take notice, as S60 T8 ownership will greatly reduce the number of necessary fuel stops. Due to the VolvoÂ’s long 10,000-mile maintenance gaps, it only needed to make one regular dealer stop in our time. Besides that, there were two other trips to the dealer. We had recall work done — there was an issue with the automatic emergency braking system — before the first regular service. And a sunroof snafu was the carÂ’s second and last unscheduled trip to the shop. Read on below for all of our final impressions on the 2020 Volvo S60 T8. 2020 Volvo S60 T8 View 15 Photos Road Test Editor Zac Palmer: The S60 T8 is a slightly sporty sedan, but itÂ’s no sports sedan.

Volvo's SuperTruck 2 looks ready to extend a ramp for K.I.T.T.

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) entered a public-private partnership with willing Class 8 truck makers, the goal of the partnership to dramatically improve the freight efficiency of over-the-road (OTR) trucks. The term "freight efficiency" refers to freight-ton efficiency, a different metric than miles per gallon because it takes into account the weight of the truck; a lighter tractor-trailer can carry more weight before reaching the 80,000-pound legal maximum on most U.S. highways. Volvo, Daimler (which owns the Freightliner and Sterling brands), Navistar (International), and Peterbilt signed on the the partnership to develop what's being called a SuperTruck. Volvo, Daimler, and International make their own engines, Peterbilt teamed up with Cummins, and all four found their own trailer manufacturers to work with. Those four makers debuted their first iterations of what's being dubbed SuperTrucks about six years ago. This year has been all about SuperTruck 2, Volvo the last of the quartet to show what it's achieved. The goal for SuperTruck 1 was to achieve a 50% increase in freight efficiency compared to a 2009 baseline, the baseline in Volvo's case being a 2009 VNL 670 tractor. The goal for SuperTruck 2 was another 50% improvement. Volvo said its internal goal was a 120% betterment compared to 2009, and that it exceeded the mark with a 134% increase. The company said the huge gains came primarily from aerodynamics: A wedge-shaped front with a smaller frontal area thanks to a smaller cooling package; the heavily curved, wraparound windshield; the tractor's adjustable ride height; using camera for side mirrors; and adding a boat tail to the back of the trailer, plus enough fairings and skirts front-to-back to make the tractor and trailer look like a single unit when driving in a straight line. Volvo did make changes to its rolling lab that aren't likely to infiltrate the U.S. market anytime soon. It's common for U.S. OTR trucks to use a 6x4 configuration, with two axles behind the cab, both driven. Volvo's SuperTruck 2 went with a 4x2 setup common in Europe, using a single axle behind the cab, and fitted a composite driveshaft. Combined with making the chassis out of aluminum instead of steel, and trailer partner Wabash providing a lightweight aluminum van, the tractor-trailer combo weighed just 27,000 pounds.