Volvo ES90 Electric Sedan establishes a new reference in security technology

If there is a word that has historically summarized the Volvo brand, it is security. But now that cars have become digital technological products, this no longer only means crumpled areas, airbags and hardened passenger compartments. For higher notes, a car needs computer -assisted sophisticated systems. With Launch of the Volvo ES90The Swedish company hopes to continue its leadership in security in the digital age. I spoke to Alwin Bakkenes, manager of software engineering at Volvo, what ES90 means for the main objectives of the brand.

Volvo ES90: EV Premium features

The Volvo ES90 was only launched without giving journalists a chance to drive it. But the design is promising. Although it looks like a sedan, ES90 is a tailgate. This will make it more practical for families, who want a lot of luggage space without being a SUV. The passenger space is also superb, with a lot of space for adults more than six feet high to sit behind people of similar size on the front seats.

The electric range is up to 435 miles in the WLTP cycle, and this car uses an 800 V architecture (Volvo’s SPA2, also used by the Polestar 3) rather than 400 V as used in the Volvo Ex30. He can therefore invoice very quickly, capable of reconstructing 186 miles in just ten minutes when he is connected to a 350 kW charger. Battery sizes up to 106 kWh and a double engine option indicate the premium positioning of ES90. But it is the computer capacity that cements this car as a new flagship product and Volvo leader in the push of the company to digital security.

“The software now replaces the hardware as the main engine of innovation,” explains Bakkenes. “For Volvo, it is a question of raising the bar in terms of security and providing an innovative technology centered on humans. The ES90 is the first Volvo powered with two Nvidia Drive Ags Orin processors, which have a calculation power of around 500 billions of operations per second (summit), which makes it the most powerful Volvo car of all time. These are chips designed for inference tasks around AI. We use them to orchestrate everything in the car by emphasizing our safety battery. ES90 shares the same foundations as Ex90which was the first car to use SPA2. »»

At the heart of these foundations is the technical battery of Superset by Volvo. “As with all our products using Superset, ES90 is designed to improve over time in air updates,” explains Bakkenes. The ex90 had only one Orin chip, with its second computer the Nvidia Xavier series less powerful. Volvo intends to offer a free upgrade to all existing ex90 owners, updating Twin Orin processor equipment as well. “The Orin is about eight times more powerful than the Xavier chip for AI calculation. This allows us to considerably improve the number of parameters for our AI models. »»

Exploitation of the computing power of the Volvo ES90

Although the ES90 has the same network of sensors as the ex90, including cameras, radar and LIDAR, improved calculation performance will radically increase its safety capacities improved by the software. “We can make more inference on the edge and this gives better performance systems,” explains Bakkenes. “We are going to take advantage of this computing power to improve security. ES90 is designed to look for you with a very good perception battery for the environment using cameras and radars to allow the car to be reliable in different weather conditions, darkness and sunlight. The Lidar can detect obstacles, even small objects, with a very long range and in darkness. We combine this with a system of understanding the advanced pilot with several cameras allowing the car to interpret the attention of the driver to build a holistic driver assistance system solution (ADAS). »»

Volvo’s objective is to go far beyond the simple supply of sufficient technologies for a higher safety note. “We do this with real security in mind, in each scenario, and that is why we optimize,” explains Bakkenes. Optimization is improved with each software update. “It’s a trip we started a long time ago. Each car that we have built for many years is entirely above the air update. It is not only for the entertainment system. We can touch each ECU of the car and we also collect data. These data allow us to understand how to improve systems over time. »»

The computing power in ES90 allows it to contribute data to this optimization process as well as to benefit from it. “With the stack of Superset technologies now in SPA2, we even have the possibility of collecting data from raw sensor that we can use to train our models to improve them over time, then deploy these models on vehicles,” explains Bakkenes. “The Superset underpins all our next electric cars. When we improve the ADAS battery, this does not only benefit the ES90. He also benefits the ex90, as well as to future cars that arrive on the Superset technological battery like the ex60. »»

“It is the most powerful Volvo to date from a computer point of view and, being defined by software, it is designed to be able to evolve continuously,” explains Bakkenes. “We can take advantage of this computing power over time. Initially, we combine this with an exceptional network of sensors using AI to keep you as an occupant in the vehicle, but also your environment, in complete safety. This is what we call the technology of safe space. »»

Volvo ES90: technology for future autonomy

“We are Volvo and our customers expect that we provide them with the safest experience,” says Bakkenes. “The avoidance of collisions is one of the most important things, protecting the occupants of the vehicle, but also the people around the vehicle. The ES90 and ex90 are not only equipped with two computers and a wide range of sensors, including the Lidar. There is also redundancy. There is redundant steering, steering and diet. These cars are really prepared for autonomous driving. We first deploy supervised autonomy, where it really works and where it is sure, and we will gradually improve the capacities. But the equipment is prepared for unopensed autonomy. »»

“One of the reasons why we go to two orins is due to the computer requirements we need to meet the autonomous driving that we have considered with these cars,” explains Bakkenes. “Having 500 above in cars allows us to make an inference in the edge. You cannot perform independent tasks in the cloud. You have to do all of this locally. We also have enough calculation power to execute scenarios in ghost mode, so that we can deploy new algorithms, and before activating them, testing them and seeing how the behavior is in the real world, to strengthen the necessary confidence. We have also equipped these cars with 5G connectivity, so we can download perception data in a data center where we ingest and process them. We analyze it and decide if it should be part of the training battery. »»

“It’s a double revolution,” says Bakkenes. “The car is a computer now, but you also have the possibility of accelerating development through many scenarios in simulation with a digital twin Before testing them physically. Having this amount of computing power in ES90, there is so much more than we can do with the system. One of the powerful parts of our transformation is that we are not only building a car. We build a technological battery in overcome, which we deploy on a wide range of cars, and this allows us to inherit features from one car to another. We could announce a feature for ES90. The ex90 also gets it. And the car afterwards, which, of course, makes us much more effective over time. »»

While Volvo shares many parts of its EV technology with other brands of the Geely group of which it is a part, the emphasis on security will be a specific characteristic of Volvo. “These computer sensors allow us to create a customer experience which, in our view, is really beautiful,” explains Bakkenes. “Some of our transformational journey consists in becoming a software focused on thousands of software engineers that can create excellent products and a machine that allows us to manage all these active safety data.”

“We were led by data from the early 1970s when we went out with measurement bands to understand what happened in physical accidents,” said Bakkenes. “We have implemented connectivity in 2020 on each car to collect real data from events. We have collected telemetry data from real or close collisions because they have helped to increase our real security understanding. The computing power of the Volvo ES90 could help link this data for the ultimate driving in complete safety.