LIDAR increases safety in Volvo's upcoming cars

LIDAR increases safety in Volvo's upcoming cars

Luminar is the LIDAR technology that will make upcoming Volvo cars safer and self-driving.

Eva Sporrner
Eva Sporrner

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LIDAR can be described as a radar light technique where a vehicle gets a detailed picture of what is happening in the environment. Florida-based Luminar, which Volvo Cars has invested in, has a LIDAR with a range of 250 meters. The technology can partly be used as a safety aid to the driver but also make the vehicle completely self-driving.

This is how Luminars "sees" a highway. Photo: Volvo Cars

LIDAR technology complements radar and cameras and is to be tested by Volvo Cars on roadways. The technology is not yet ready for city traffic, but it is something that is planned for the future. Volvo Cars plans to integrate the technology into its SPA2 platform.

The LIDAR technology will be integrated just above the windshield. Photo: Volvo Cars

SPA2, Scalable Product Architecture 2, is a platform for cars with lithium-ion batteries as well as computers, sensors and signal processing for fully self-driving vehicles. The XC90 SUV is the first model that will build on the new SPA2 platform and will be released in 2022 .

Volvo Cars aims to have one third of the cars self-driving and half of the cars the company sells during 2025 should be clean battery cars.

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