The flagship Scandinavian luxury sedan, the Volvo S90 has been all over the internet long before it was unveiled to the world some time ago. Scheduled to go on sale, sometime later in the year, the S90 is touted as the next technological tour-de-force which will take the fight straight to the German Big 3 camp.
While the competition is ruthless in the segment that it is scheduled to operate in, the Volvo S90 will bring that one party trick to the game, which no one else other than it will have the bragging rights to. That’s correct, the S90 will be the first such car to feature semi-autonomous driving assist as a standard feature.
Those wondering if the piloted driving in Volvo S90 is in some way related to the company’s Pilot Assist semi-autonomous driving assistance program, would be right on the money. Only, the S90 will go a step further, and use the second generation of this advanced and highly acclaimed technology.
The Pilot Assist on the S90 will go a step beyond the capabilities of the first generation system that was seen in their recently launched flagship SUV, the XC90. In the S90, the Pilot Assist ditches the need to track the vehicle in front of it. It will continue to brake, accelerate and steer solely on the basis of the lane-markings as seen by its forward sensing cameras. The semi-autonomous piloted driving in the Volvo S90 will also be effective for speeds up to 80 mph (a 50 mph jump over the XC90’s system). Genius, isn’t it! What makes it even more so, is that the S90 in the glorious safety-oriented heritage that Volvo is famed for, will be the first sedan on sale, to offer this type & level of capabilities in a commercially available, road going car.
Volvo had in the recent past revealed their ambition to drive down & eventually eradicate injuries & fatalities involving its cars by the end of the decade. The ongoing advancements in the Pilot Assist program and the subsequent adoption of it across the model range, in a top-down fashion, is a step in just this regard. It is nice to see a manufacturer declaring their Vision 2020 plans and then following it up with clear & measurable steps towards achieving them.
