The EX90 won’t debut until November 9th, but some of the details are included in a series of Shingy-esque press releases that include a lot of sections like “Understanding the human experience” and “a watchful guardian.” Specifically, there’s stuff like: Emphasis mine. The press release goes out of the way to remind us that Volvo is made of people and not robots trying to bring about the end of human free will. This is maybe because the new LIDAR-equipped Volvo EX90 will have five radars, eight cameras, and 16 ultrasonic sensors. Very cool. Can’t wait to try it out. The development of our latest safety technology is based on understanding human behaviour, rooted in decades of our own and others’ safety research. Every one of us is likely to experience or be affected by at least one car crash in our lifetime. That’s not a judgment: we know that most of the time you’re a great driver, alert and ready to act when needed. But we’re all humans, and that also means to experience emotions. It would be way less, creepy, though, if they didn’t share a video of little drone orbs forming a car and then forming a face in a way that’s pretty much exactly like the bad guy at the end of Matrix Revolutions.
Here’s the drone face:
The whole talking-in-a-computer generated background thing doesn’t help either. Hopefully, the new vehicle doesn’t try to destroy humanity and turn us into dreaming Duracells and ideally it looks something like the Recharge concept:
Though, these leaked patent drawings seem to suggest something a little more low-key:
Either way, we’ll learn a lot more about the EX90 in a couple of months. Safety.. there is no absolute. At the end of the day, either the nut sitting at the computer or the nut behind the wheel are going to have to drive the thing. For obvious reasons, I pick ME for the role. If these were billed as drones being controlled from Torslanda, then sure, you’re merely shifting the failure point. Not that I’ll likely be in the market for one of these. I’m going to go ahead and assume the automation will push the MSRP even further from what seems reasonable to me Think: Tesla “FSD.” I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I have yet to make a wrong turn onto a one-way street. Or arbitrarily come to a dead stop in the middle of a highway lane for no reason. Different sets of challenges, and I’m skeptical generally of autonomous driving, but it is different I agree with you that EX90 is silly, especially when their current EVs are the XC40 and C40. I don’t get this drive by some manufacturers to dump historic names for bland alphanumeric. ID.3, bZX4, EV6? Why not Golf ID, RAV-4E, and any name that’s less generic than EV6? Not sure what any of these manufactures think the draw of these coded letter number combos are Is safety important? Yes, and I want to be safe, up to the level where the safety tax is so large that it impacts my life negatively. An extreme example is going everywhere in a kevlar vest or worse yet, not going anywhere. How much agency are you willing to cede to an entity (government, partner, corporation) that promises to keep you safe? I don’t trust Volvo or any other nebulous organization to understand my priorities, desires, or needs, or even to accurately assess my risks. “I only have one life so I want to be safe” is less compelling than “I only have one life so I want to live it fully”. If you actually enjoy driving, the difference between being chauffeured by a modern nanny-mobile and piloting an analog human-controlled machine could make a large difference in your quality of life. And it is worth the risk. THIS.. is why we are being led down the path of no recourse! Also…. how do you knowingly get into a vehicle with no driver.. and get out as a passenger, with no concept of whats been going on.
