Volvo EX90 review: A luxurious technological journey
However, there is an obvious problem with the exterior: lidar a dent in the top of the windshield. Volvo knows this is a problem and I know it for two reasons. First, if you look at the plethora of official press photos of the car, you’ll see plenty of shots of the EX90 from almost every possible angle expected in a profile. I found one profile picture, but the car is so far in the background that the hump is small, which is no doubt intentional. Up close, it really does look like a non-illuminated taxi sign. Second, I asked a Volvo designer at a brand-hosted presentation if the team had trouble dealing with the hump as we stared at it jutting out from the roofline, and they grudgingly confirmed that they had.
Still, this lidar enhances the car’s already great safety. The company claims that this is the safest Volvo ever, as the sensor matrix is ​​able to build a complete picture of the world around the car, picking out even small objects hundreds of meters away, whether it’s night or day.
Although this technology makes the EX90 capable of autonomous driving on the highway, Volvo has yet to include this capability, and Thomas Broberg, Volvo’s senior technical safety advisor, would not say when it will. “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 self-driving technology, but then acknowledges that the company has been testing this system, or versions of it, for years. Early next year, the EX90 will allow controlled driving 2.5, apparently, but until then all drivers will just collect Volvo data.
One last important point on the lidar hump. At the launch, I spoke with a representative from Luminar, the company that makes this nasty self-driving component. He told me that the next generation of technology is half the size and that Luminar are working on mounting it into the windshield instead of letting it sit proudly on top. This sounds much better and you can expect to see it in cars as soon as 2026 or 2027. Unfortunately, Volvo hasn’t confirmed whether it will 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. This is to prevent children or dogs being left inside by mistake, as well as all the monitoring and driver assistance systems you’d expect from a Volvo. That’s a very good thing, since such is the plush nature of the EX90’s interior (the convincing Nordico “leather” trim is actually made from recycled plastic and sustainable pine oil), you wouldn’t want to leave unattended pets and children to wreak havoc on the optional captain’s seats in the middle row or the cavernous trunk, which has a very comfortable “Will it fit?” graphic diagram that includes a washing machine, chairs, skis and a refrigerator that lets you see what kind of stuff can be crammed into acres of space in the back.
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