沃尔沃近日宣布计划于2021年在美国投产下一代XC90，车厂同时还披露了新车的最初细节。沃尔沃高级副总裁HenrikGreen透露，第三代高端SUV将可提供L4级别自动驾驶技术，在车辆从A地到B地行驶过程中，车内乘客可以睡觉。但在标准车型上，这是不可能的，因为你需要选择“HighwayAssist”选装包，该选装包成本将达到“四位数”。沃尔沃在相当长一段时间内一直在测试更先进的自动驾驶技术，并与优步合作，开发一种更复杂的系统，以在未来的量产车型中实现。对于2021款XC90，Green指出新的HighwayAssist系统将依赖云的通信基础。不用说，沃尔沃将与美国监管机构接触，以获得对其先进自动驾驶技术的强制性批准。2021款沃尔沃XC90将不会有一个完整的4级自动驾驶系统，因为HighwayAssist将只能在特定的被地图标注的道路上工作，无法实现在所有道路上进行自动驾驶。
Next Volvo XC90 Coming 2021 With Level 4 Autonomous Driving Tech
It was only yesterday when Volvo announced plans to put the next-generation XC90 into production at its new U.S. plant in 2021 and now the company has disclosed some preliminary details about the large SUV. In an interview with The Car Connection, Volvo’s Senior Vice President, Henrik Green, revealed the third generation of the premium SUV will be smart enough to offer level 4 autonomous driving technology to haul “sleeping passengers” from point A to point B on some roadways.
But that won’t be possible on the standard model as you’ll need to tick the box called “Highway Assist” and doing so is going to set you back “four figures.” Volvo has been testing more advanced self-driving tech for quite some time and it has teamed up with Uber to work on a more complex system to be implemented in future production models.
Getting back to the 2021 XC90, Green specified the new Highway Assist will rely on cloud-based information rather than on the vehicle-to-infrastructure communications systems. Needless to say, Volvo will be in contact with regulators in the U.S. to get the mandatory stamp of approval for its advanced self-driving tech.
To better understand what a level 4 autonomous driving system implies, it refers to a car that can complete an entire trip without any human intervention. It still has the usual driver controls such as the steering wheel and pedals for the situations in which a human has to take control of the vehicle. Level 5 is the ultimate goal: no steering wheel, no pedals – with the car doing all the work.
As a final note, it’s worth mentioning the 2021 Volvo XC90 will not have a full level 4 autonomous driving system since Highway Assist will only work on certain mapped roads, such as highways as the name of the tech implies.